Potter did what now? Book 1
by wolfgirl263
Summary: Dudley, Piers, Malcolm, and Gordon are hanging around the Dursley household while their parents are on a week long vacation together. They plan to kick it back and torment the neighborhood kids. But when three strangers show up with books about that scrawny weirdo, Harry Potter, they find out more about him than they ever thought. A reading the books story
1. Prologue

**Hey Everyone! well here it is the new verion of 'Potter did what now?' ok so first off this chapter was not written by be it was written by Wolfe luv** **and i will be posting the other 4 chapters wolfe luv has written as well so for the next couple days will just be me putting up the chapters that are already done. And like she said in her last update she will be having a say in what happens in this story and will be giving the chapters i wite her aproval before i post them so between me, her, and my beta reader i beleive we can write a great story you will all love! So enjoy **

**Disclaimer: I Do not own Harry Potter J.k Rowling does and i can not take credit for this chapter all the credit goes to Wolfe luv!**

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Dudley and his gang of hooligans, otherwise known as Piers, Malcom, and Gordon, were running up and down the

hallways of number four Privet Drive throwing an American football that Gordon's older brother had given him. It was the summer time and since mother nature decided to tick everyone off today, it was raining cats and dogs.

"Hey Malcolm, throw it over here!" said Piers, a rat faced looking teenager that wasn't as big as the rest of the four.

The football sailed over Piers outstretched hand and went through a door next to Mr. and Mrs. Dursleys room that had not shut properly.

"Way to go," Malcolm said sarcastically, who was only a little shorter than Dudley.

"You're the one who threw it!" retorted Piers.

"Just get the bloody ball already. It went into Potter's bedroom." Gordon demanded, who was big and stupid like Piers and Malcolm. Dudley was only a little smarter than the rest of them.

"Just get the ball and get out and don't touch anything in there." Dudley said a little nervous. Truth be told, he had never gone into his cousin's room before. He had been too scared that he might accidently set off something and get turned into a warty toad.

Ever since the Dementor attack almost four years ago, Dudley Dursley had completely changed. He no longer beat up ten year old kids with three other teenagers behind him or broke into liquor cabinents. In fact, he didn't do any of those things anymore, but his friends did.

Dudley had tried to convince them to not do that kind of stuff. But he couldn't even pluck up the courage to tell them. Instead, he did a compromise by making excuses when they wanted to vandalize a park or go smoke a cigarette.

"Alright alright," Piers muttered. "Speaking of which, where is that scrawny cousin of yours? We havn't beaten him up in a while."

"Yeah," said Gordon eagerly. "I've been dying to break those stupid glasses of his."

"He went to spend the summer at a friend's house." Dudley replied. It was a half truth anyway. But that had been _last _year. He hadn't seen his cousin since he had left with Dedalus Diggle and Hestia Jones.

"Woah," came the sound of Piers in Harry's room. "What kind of bath robe is this? Was this a halloween costume or something?"

The three other boys trooped into the said room where they found Piers holding up a black set of robes that had an H embroidered on it with a lion, snake, badger and eagle surrounding it.

"Wow, Big D! Potter is an even bigger weirdo than I thought!" exclaimed Malcolm who was examining a black cauldron while Piers poke through some books labeled _The Standard book of Spells Grade 6 and Quidditch Teams of Ireland and Britian._

"Yeah, did he think he was a wizard or something?" snorted Gordon.

Before Malcolm could make a snarky comment, the door bell rang.

"Who would be coming here in the middle of this weather?" Piers asked.

"Your parents? Maybe they forget their key?" Malcolm said looking at Dudley.

"No," Dudley muttered heading for the door. "They had them when they left."

Dudley stalked off to the door and wrenched it open to reveal a girl with long red hair that he assumed to be sixteen or seventeen. On eitheir side of her were two one on the left had a round face and appeared to be eighteen. The other had dreadlocks and looked to be twenty-one.

"Are you Dudley Dursley?" asked the red headed girl disdainfully.

"Yes," Dudley asked, his eyes transfixed on the girl. She had to be the prettiest girl he'd ever seen, with bright brown eyes set into a pale face that was framed by long red hair.

"Oi, she's seeing someone!" the boy with the dreadlocks exclaimed.

Dudley tried to hide his embarrasment by asking, "who are you?"

"I'm Ginny Weasley," said the girl. "And this," -she gestured to the boy with the dreadlocks- "is Lee Jordan and Neville Longbottom. Were here to talk to you about your cousin, Harry Potter." Ginny said.

His heart seemed to thrum louder. Was he finallyl going to find out what happend to him? All that Dedalus Diggle had said that his scrawny cousin who he used to beat up had to stop a Dark wizard by the name of Lord the weight of the entire wizarding and muggle world on his shoulders, though Dudley had no idea what a muggle was.

"Hey Big D, what's taking you so long?" called out Gordon. "Come on already!"

"Um, why don't you come in?" Dudley asked, shifting his weight from foot to foot nervously.

The three wizards-or so Dudley assumed- walked into the living room where Gordon, Malcolm and Piers were lounging on the couches, still throwing the football.

"'Bout time you got here Dud-" Gordon stopped abruptly when he saw Ginny. "And who," he said giving the smile he usually gives when he's trying to pick up girls. "Might you be?"

Ginny gave him an irritated look. "Seeing someone," she retorted.

"Ooh, feisty." Gordon chuckled. "Oh well, they always come around eventually. But may I ask who is it that you're dating?"

"Harry Potter," Ginny snapped.

You could here a pin drop then-

"You got to be joking!" Malcolm laughed.

"Yeah, no one in their right _mind_ would date, Potter!" Gordon howled.

Piers actually laughed so hard that he fell off the back of the couch where he was seated.

"Who _would _date that scrawny, spineless cousin of yours anyway, Dudley?" Gordon chortled.

"Alot of girls actually," Lee smirked.

"What makes you say that?" Malcolm sneered.

"What he's saying is that you don't even have a shadow of a thought of what Harry really does when he's at school or why people look up to him." Neville snapped, looking at the bemused expression on their faces.

"What're you going on about?" Piers demanded.

"What he's saying is that your cousin is famous." Ginny said looking at Dudley. Harry had said that Dudley had changed, but that didn't mean that she was fine with him. She was still pretty ticked off that Harry had made harry sleep in a cupboard.

"Exactly, and were here to tell you why. Well, more like read." Lee grinned.

"What d'you mean? What's so special about Harry?" Gordon persisted.

"Harry's a wizard. And so are we, well Ginny's a witch, but same principle." Neville shrugged.

"He's a _what?_" Piers asked incredously.

"Way to be blunt, Neville." Lee sniggered.

"He's exactly what Neville said. And to help you understand why, we came here with seven books about Harry's life since he started Hogwarts." Ginny said.

"That's not true." Gordon sneered. "There's no way that Potter is a wizard, or if magic even exists."

"Harry is one of them." Dudley said suprising them all. He'd been quiet since they'd came in.

"But where's the proof that magic exists." Malcolm said. "Those could have been fake spellbooks we found in his room."

Ginny sighed and brought out her wand and muttered something that Dudley thought sounded like _expecto patronum._ As soon as she said it, a huge, silvery stallion erupted from the end of Ginny's wand, and bounded around the room and then dissapeared.

"Believe me now?" Ginny asked.

The three boys nodded, looking gobsmacked. **(A/N:Don't you just love that word?)**

"Bit of an overkill, Gin," Neville snorted.

"Yeah, well, I though a theatrical performance was required, Neville." Ginny said dryly.

"You should enroll in the Wizarding Academy of Dramatic Arts." Lee chuckled. **(A/N: This does actually exist in the world of Harry Potter. It's mentioned in **_**The Tales of Beetle the Bard. **_**Right in the commentary of **_**The Fountain of Fair Fortune.**_**)**

Ginny smiled wryly. "I was thinking of try out for the Holyhead Harpies Quidditch team instead, Lee."

"While professional Quidditch games are good, nothing beats the Hogwarts commentary on the game, especially while I was there." Lee said jokingly.

"Hey, yeah, so are we going to start anytime soon or are we just gonna listen to you three go on about Quidditch and unrelated nonsense?" Malcolm asked impatiently.

"I dunno, I kind of wanna go on about Quidditch," Lee said grinning.

"And I wanna talk about unrelated nonsense." Neville said also grinning.

Ginny snorted and took out a book and muttered a spell.

The book floated up and opened to the first page and in a gruff voice read:** Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Chapter One, The Boy Who Lived.**


	2. The Boy Who Lived

**Hello readers! Well here you are the next chapter I hope you enjoy and once again this was written by Wolfe luv**

** Disclaimer: I Do not own Harry Potter Mrs. J.k Rowling does**

**Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense.**

"Whoa, that book can talk!" Piers exclaimed.

Lee rolled his eyes. "Of course it can, I didn't really fancy reading a book to a bunch of teenagers."

**Mr. Dursley was the director of a firm called Grunnings, which made drills. He was a big, beefy man with hardly any neck, although he did have a very large mustache. Mrs. Dursley was thin and blonde and had nearly twice the usual amount of neck, which came in very useful as she spent so much of her time craning over garden fences, spying on the neighbors**

"I have to admit, that is a pretty accurate description, Dud," Malcolm snorted.

**The Dursleys had a small son called Dudley and in their opinion there was no finer boy anywhere. **

"Small?" Ginny asked incredously which made Dudley turn red and the rest to snigger.

**The Dursleys had everything they wanted, but they also had a secret, and their greatest fear was that somebody would discover it. They didn't think they could bear it if anyone found out about the Potters. **

"How can you not want anyone know you're related to the Potter's? Harry's great!" Lee cheered.

"Yeah, you should hear some of the comebacks he makes when he's mad," Neville said.

"Trust me, I know," Dudley muttered.

**Mrs. Potter was Mrs. Dursley's sister, but they hadn't met for sedveral years; in fact, Mrs. Dursley pretended she didn't have a sister, because her sister and her good-for-nothing husband were as unDursleyish as it was possible to be. **

"Is that even a word?" Piers asked.

"No, besides who wants to be normal? It sucks all the fun out of life," Lee proclaimed.

"Couldn't agree with you more. That's why I love Hogwarts, nothing is ever normal," Ginny said.

"Especially when Harry's there," Neville muttered.

"Wait, what's Hogwarts?" Malcolm asked.

"Isn't that the school where Harry goes to at the end of every summer?" Dudley asked.

"Congratulations, Dudley, you finally figured out what school your cousin goes to after seven years," Malcolm said sarcastically. That comment caused Dudley to backhand him so he fell off the back of the chair again.

**The Dursleys shuddered to think what the neighbors would say if the Potters arrived in the street. The Dursleys knew that the Potters had a small son, **

"Scrawny is the better word," Gordon muttered which made Piers and Malcolm to crack up. Luckily for them Ginny didn't hear them.

**too, but they had never even seen him. This boy was another good reason for keeping the Potters away; they didn't want Dudley mixing with a child like that.**

"Please, I rather be 'mixing with a child like that' than a child like Dudley," Neville said.

"That's because Dudley and his gang think what's fun is beating up kids that can't defend themselves," Ginny said, glaring at said boy.

"Besides, Harry's idea of fun, is so much more entertaining," Lee said grinning.

**When Mr. and Mrs. Dursley woke up on the dull, gray Tuesday our story starts, there was nothing about the cloudy sky outside to suggest that strange and mysterious things would soon be happening all over the country. Mr. Dursley hummed as he picked out his most boring tie for work,**

"Wow, that's lame," Gordon commented.

"Yeah, I like our bow ties more at Smeltings," Piers put in.

"Please, at least our ties we wear at Hogwarts are better. There diagonally striped with your House colors," said Lee.

"What are the houses?" Dudley asked curiously. The few times he had passed his cousins room when the door had been left open, he had seen a flag that was red and gold.

"Well there's Gryffindor, 'where dwell the brave at heart-'" said Ginny.

"Go go Gryffindor!" Lee cheered.

"Ravenclaw, where the motto is 'wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure,'" Ginny continued.

"Also known as the house where a lot of the smarter witch and wizards are," Neville simplified.

"Slytherin, 'where the cunning folk use any means to achieve their end.'"

"More like meet their end," Lee muttered.

"Hufflepuff, where they are, 'just, loyal, and unafraid of toil,'" Ginny stated.

"Though, a lot of people say that Hufflepuffs are for people who don't fit well into the other houses," Lee said.

"There's nothing wrong with, Hufflepuff," Neville snapped. He was kind of dating Hannah Abbott.

"So, which one is Harry in?" Dudley asked curiously.

"Hufflepuff obviously," Gordan said. "He's not exactly smart, brave, or cunning."

"Actually," Ginny said smirking. "Harry's is brave. He's a Gryffindor through and through."

"What about the rest of you?" Malcolm asked.

"Gryffindor, of course. No one else is this cool," Lee said tipping back in his chair.

No one saw Ginny subtly from her pocket and point it at the leg of Lee's chair, causing him to tip backward and bang his head against the floor.

"Now, if you idiots are done talking, I would like for the book to continue," Ginny said.

**and Mrs. Dursley gossiped away happily as she wrestled a screaming Dudley into his high chair.**

"Nice," Lee snickered which made Dudley turn red.

**None of them noticed a large, tawny owl flutter past the window.**

"And thus our story begins," Lee said dramatically.

"Did you just say 'thus'?" Malcolm asked.

"Yes, I find that speaking in fancy schmancy terms such as 'kip', 'thus', and 'alas' make for an intriguing conversation," Lee said in his best pompous voice.

"Did you just say something intelligent?" Ginny asked shocked.

"Yes, and don't get used to it," Lee replied.

**At half past eight, Mr. Dursley picked up his briefcase, pecked Mrs. Dursley on the cheek, and tried to kiss Dudley good-bye but missed, because Dudley was now having a tantrum and throwing his cereal at the walls.**

**"Little tyke," chortled Mr. Dursley**

"Since when has Dudley been little?" Malcolm asked incredously.

**as he left the house. He got into his car and backed out of number four's drive.**

**It was on the corner of the street that he noticed the first sign of something peculiar — a cat reading a map.**

"What? Cats don't read maps though," Dudley said confused.

"They do if their Transfiguration teachers that have an ambition to deduct points from people who try to have fun," Lee muttered.

**For a second, Mr. Dursley didn't realize what he had seen — then he jerked his head around to look again. There was a tabby cat standing on the corner of Privet Drive, but there wasn't a map in sight. What could he have been thinking of?**

"Yes, what could you have been thinking?" Lee snickered.

"I'm amazed," Ginny said looking at the book in shock.

"Why? Because he just saw a cat reading a map?" Piers asked confused.

"No, the fact that he can think," Ginny said, still looking at the book while the others howled with laughter.

**It must have been a trick of the light. Mr. Dursley blinked and stared at the cat. It stared back. As Mr. Dursley drove around the corner and up the road, he watched the cat in his mirror. It was now reading the sign that said Privet Drive — no, looking at the sign; cats couldn't read maps or signs.**

**Mr. Dursley gave himself a little shake and put the cat out of his mind. As he drove toward town he thought of nothing except a large order of drills he was hoping to get that day.**

"He lives such an exciting life," Ginny muttered.

"He will as soon as Harry gets there," Neville said giving Ginny a look that made her blush.

_Huh, I wonder how serious her relationship is with her and Harry,_ Dudley thought to himself. Not that he would actually steal his cousin's girlfriend after he had saved his life-soul-whatever.

As if on the same wavelength as him, Gordon piped up, "Hey, Ginger, how 'bout me and you go on a date?" he said slyly.

"First of all, my name is Ginny. And second, I don't date guys whose IQ is less than the age of the kid he beats up," She said coolly.

Dudley thought Lee and Neville were going choke on the lack of oxygen their lungs were receiving. Even Malcolm and Piers were able to pass off their laughs of amusement as coughs when Gordon gave them a dirty look.

**But on the edge of town, drills were driven out of his mind by something else. As he sat in the usual morning traffic jam, he couldn't help noticing that there seemed to be a lot of strangely dressed people about. People in cloaks.**

**Mr. Dursley couldn't bear people who dressed in funny clothes — the getups you saw on young people! He supposed this was some stupid new fashion. **

"Yes, a fashion that has been around since King Arthur ruled," Neville said.

**He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel and his eyes fell on a huddle of these weirdos standing quite close by. They were whispering excitedly together. Mr. Dursley was enraged to see that a couple of them weren't young at all; why, that man had to be older than he was, and wearing an emerald-green cloak! The nerve of him!**

"I wonder what Dursley would say if he saw Professor Dumbledore," Ginny mused, thinking about how her ex-headmaster's eccentric form of clothes.

"Nothing at all," Dudley muttered. He remembered how angry his dad had been when that old wizard had come knocking in the middle of the night.

**But then it struck Mr. Dursley that this was probably some silly stunt —these people were obviously collecting for something… yes, that would be it.**

"Yeah, collecting rumors aabout how a one year old baby managed to survie the Killing Curse and defeat the darkest wizard that ever lived," Neville said.

"A one year old did what now?" Dudley asked flabbergasted.

But Lee just waved off the question.

**The traffic moved on and a few minutes later, Mr. Dursley arrived in the Grunnings parking lot, his mind back on drills.**

"Wow, so much depth in the human male mind," Ginny muttered sarcastically. "Well, for a muggle that's the size of a walrus," she amended.

**Mr. Dursley always sat with his back to the window in his office on the ninth floor. If he hadn't, he might have found it harder to concentrate on drills that morning. He didn't see the owls swooping past in broad daylight, though people down in the street did; they pointed and gazed open-mouthed as owl after owl sped overhead. Most of them had never seen an owl even at nighttime.**

**Mr. Dursley, however, had a perfectly normal, owl-free morning. He yelled at five different people. **

**He made several important telephone calls and shouted a bit more. **

"Such a productive day," Dudley said, than blushed at Ginny's raised eyebrow.

"Just because he's my dad doesn't mean that I don't find drills all that interesting.

"Touche," Ginny agreed thinking about her own dad's boring office.

**He was in a very good mood until lunchtime, when he thought he'd stretch his legs and walk across the road**

"Wait, he can walk? I thought he slid around on his belly like an actual walrus," Lee exclaimed.

**to buy himself a bun from the bakers opposite.**

"No, more like a pig I think," Gordon snorted.

"Your one to talk," Ginny retorted.

"Oh, so I'm not allowed to make smart comments but you can?"

"Exactly, glad we established that," Ginny smirked.

"Key word: smart," Lee put in.

**He'd forgotten all about the people in cloaks until he passed a group of them next to the baker's. He eyed them angrily as he passed. He didn't know why, but they made him uneasy. This lot were whispering excitedly, too, and he couldn't see a single collecting tin. It was on his way back past them, clutching a large doughnut in a bag, that he caught a few words of what they were saying.**

**"The Potters, that's right, that's what I heard –"**

**" — yes, their son, Harry – "**

"Wait, what about, Harry?" Piers asked.

But again no one answered.

**Mr. Dursley stopped dead.**

**Fear flooded him. He looked back at the whisperers as if he wanted to say something to them, but thought better of it.**

**He dashed back across the road, hurried up to his office, snapped at his secretary not to disturb him, seized his telephone, and had almost finished dialing his home number when he changed his mind. He put the receiver back down and stroked his moustache, thinking… no, he was being stupid.**

"He finally came to the realization did he?" Ginny asked. "Bit slow on the uptake."

"I'm just surprised that he figured it out." Lee said making the others burst out laughing.

**Potter wasn't such an unusual name. He was sure there were lots of people called Potter who had a son called Harry.**

**Come to think of it, he wasn't even sure his nephew was called Harry. He'd never even seen the boy. It might have been Harvey. Or Harold.**

"Nope, Harold Potter just doesn't have a good ring to it." Lee said shaking his head in mock disappointment.

**There was no point in worrying Mrs. Dursley; she always got so upset at any mention of her sister. He didn't blame her — if he'd had a sister like that…**

"Then he would have the best sister in the world," Neville defended.

"But no, he got stuck with Aunt Marge instead," Dudley said. He only put up with her because he got paid for it well.

**but all the same, those people in cloaks…**

**He found it a lot harder to concentrate on drills that afternoon and when he left the building at five o'clock, he was still so worried that he walked straight into someone just outside the door.**

**"Sorry," he grunted, as the tiny old man stumbled and almost fell.**

**It was a few seconds before Mr. Dursley realized that the man was wearing a violet cloak. He didn't seem at all upset at being almost knocked to the ground. On the contrary, his face split into a wide smile and he said in a squeaky voice that made passersby stare, "Don't be sorry, my dear sir, for nothing could upset me today! Rejoice, for You-Know-Who has gone at last!**

"If only. It would've saved Harry a hell of a lot of problems," Lee muttered

The muggles just looked at him blankly.

**Even Muggles like yourself should be celebrating, this happy, happy day!"**

**And the old man hugged Mr. Dursley around the middle and walked off.**

**Mr. Dursley stood rooted to the spot. He had been hugged by a complete stranger. He also thought he had been called a Muggle, whatever that was. He was rattled. He hurried to his car and set off for home, hoping he was imagining things, which he had never hoped before, because he didn't approve of imagination.**

"Could you imagine the look on Fred and George's face if they heard that?" Neville whispered to Ginny and Lee who snickered.

**As he pulled into the driveway of number four, the first thing he saw—and it didn't improve his mood — was the tabby cat he'd spotted that morning.**

**It was now sitting on his garden wall. He was sure it was the same one; it had the same markings around its eyes.**

**"Shoo!" said Mr. Dursley loudly.**

**The cat didn't move. It just gave him a stern look.**

"Yep, definitely, McGonagall," Lee nodded.

"The cat's name is McGonagall?" Dudley asked slowly.

"It's not so weird. I have a pygmy puff named Arnold," Ginny said, leaving the muggles to ponder what a pygmy puff is.

**Was this normal cat behavior?**

**Mr. Dursley wondered. Trying to pull himself together, he let himself into the house. He was still determined not to mention anything to his wife.**

**Mrs. Dursley had had a nice, normal day. She told him over dinner all about Mrs. Next Door's problems **

"Mrs. Next Door?" Piers asked uncertainly.

**with her daughter and how Dudley had learned a new word! ("Won't!").**

**Mr. Dursley tried to act normally. When Dudley had been put to bed, he went into the living room in time to catch the last report on the evening news:**

_**"And finally, bird-watchers everywhere have reported that the nation's owls have been behaving very unusually today. Although owls normally hunt at night and are hardly ever seen in daylight, there have been hundreds of sightings of these birds flying in every direction since sunrise. Experts are unable to explain why the owls have suddenly changed their sleeping pattern." The news reader allowed himself a grin. "Most mysterious. And now, over to Jim McGuffin with the weather. Going to be any more showers of owls tonight, Jim?"**_

_**"Well, Ted," said the weatherman, "I don't know about that, but it's not only the owls that have been acting oddly today. Viewers as far apart as Kent, Yorkshire, and Dundee have been phoning in to tell me that instead of the rain I promised yesterday, they've had a downpour of shooting stars! Perhaps people have been celebrating Bonfire Night early — it's not until next week, folks! But I can promise a wet night tonight."**_

**Mr. Dursley sat frozen in his armchair. Shooting stars all over Britain? Owls flying by daylight? Mysterious people in cloaks all over the place? And a whisper, a whisper about the Potters…**

"Wait, why are people talking about, Potter? It's not like he's done anything important," Gordon said.

"So you think," Neville said mysteriously.

"There's a lot more to Harry than you know," Lee agreed.

"What d'you mean?" Dudley questioned.

"I don't want to reveal too much, but let's just say since your cousin came to Hogwarts, there hasn't been a normal year since," Neville answered.

"Always knew there was something weird about, Potter," Gordon muttered. Unfortunately, Ginny heard him.

"What Neville means is that the reason why there's always weird things going on is that Harry had to stop the darkest wizard ever from regaining strength," Ginny snapped.

"Like Potter could do that. He's the most gutless person I've ever seen," Piers said to Ginny.

"Oh, you would be surprised just how capable Harry is," Lee said ominously.

**Mrs. Dursley came into the living room carrying two cups of tea. It was no good. He'd have to say something to her. He cleared his throat nervously. **

**"Er — Petunia, dear — you haven't heard from your sister lately, have you?"**

**As he had expected, Mrs. Dursley looked shocked and angry. After all, they normally pretended she didn't have a sister.**

**"No," she said sharply. "Why?"**

**"Funny stuff on the news," Mr. Dursley mumbled. "Owls… shooting stars… and there were a lot of funny-looking people in town today…"**

**"So?" snapped Mrs. Dursley.**

**"Well, I just thought… maybe… it was something to do with… you know… her crowd."**

"Didn't realize we were a 'crowd,'" Ginny said venomously.

Lee and Neville scooted away nervously. You did not want to end up on the wrong side of her Bat Bogie hex.

**Mrs. Dursley sipped her tea through pursed lips. Mr. Dursley wondered whether he dared tell her he'd heard the name "Potter." He decided he didn't dare."**

"And that is why he would never be in Gryffindor," Neville said.

"Because 'daring nerve and chivalry set Gryffindors apart,'" Lee finished and they both cracked up.

"Where do they get these mottos?" Malcolm whispered to Dudley who shrugged.

"A talking hat," Ginny answered, who had heard their conversation.

The response from the muggles was very similar to the expression Goyle wears when asked a question.

**Instead he said, as casually as he could, "Their son — he'd be about Dudley's age now, wouldn't he?"**

**"I suppose so," said Mrs. Dursley stiffly.**

**"What's his name again? Howard, isn't it?"**

**"Harry. Nasty, common name, if you ask me."**

"Well, bit hypocritical of her since her name is Petunia," Neville said.

**"Oh, yes," said Mr. Dursley, his heart sinking horribly. "Yes, I quite agree."**

**He didn't say another word on the subject as they went upstairs to bed. While Mrs. Dursley was in the bathroom, Mr. Dursley crept to the bedroom window and peered down into the front garden. The cat was still there.**

"I swear, there is something up with that cat." Malcolm said.

"Congratulations, that's the smartest observation you made all day," Ginny said bitingly.

"May I ask, what's your problem?" Gordon asked glaring at Ginny.

"My problem," she said returning the glare. "Is that four teenagers use their leisure time to pick on kids that have done nothing to them."

"They gave us lip," Piers retorted.

"Well, if they say you're pathetic for beating up kids. Then you're in denial," Ginny said waspishly.

**It was staring down Privet Drive as though it were waiting for something.**

**Was he imagining things? Could all this have anything to do with the Potters? If it did… if it got out that they were related to a pair of — well, he didn't think he could bear it.**

"Then you better get over it," Malcolm said.

**The Dursleys got into bed. Mrs. Dursley fell asleep quickly but Mr. Dursley lay awake, turning it all over in his mind. His last, comforting thought before he fell asleep was that even if the Potters were involved, there was no reason for them to come near him and Mrs. Dursley. The Potters knew very well what he and Petunia thought about them and their kind… He couldn't see how he and Petunia could get mixed up in anything that might be going on — he yawned and turned over — it couldn't affect them…**

**How very wrong he was.**

"Admitting defeat is the first step to acceptance," Lee said wisely.

"Thank you for the cookie fortune nonsense of the day," Gordon said rolling his eyes.

"More like Trelawney tea leaves," Ginny muttered which caused Neville to snort.

"I don't get it," Dudley said bluntly.

"You will soon," Neville grinned.

**Mr. Dursley might have been drifting into an uneasy sleep, but the cat on the wall outside was showing no sign of sleepiness.**

**It was sitting as still as a statue, its eyes fixed unblinkingly on the far corner of Privet Drive. It didn't so much as quiver when a car door slammed on the next street, nor when two owls swooped overhead. In fact, it was nearly midnight before the cat moved at all.**

"How does it to that." Piers asked incredously looking at the book.

"Well, it's a little thing called patience. You should try it some time." Ginny said.

"Do you have to make a sarcastic remark?" Malcolm asked annoyed.

"That wasn't sarcasm. And yes I do," Ginny answered.

**A man appeared on the corner the cat had been watching, appeared so suddenly and silently you'd have thought he'd just popped out of the ground. **

"I'm pretty sure it's magic," Dudley stated.

**The cat's tail twitched and its eyes narrowed.**

"I've seen the look," Lee muttered.

"You bring it on yourself, mate," Neville chuckled.

"I didn't even do anything that bad!" Lee protested.

"What did you do?" Dudley asked intrigued.

Lee waved his hand as if to brush the question away. "All I did was give myself a marvelous pink beard and mustache."

"That doesn't sound so bad," Malcolm said confused.

"We were supposed to make our quills disappear," Lee said casually.

**Nothing like this man had ever been seen on Privet Drive. He was tall, thin, and very old, judging by the silver of his hair and beard, which were both long enough to tuck into his belt. He was wearing long robes, a purple cloak that swept the ground, and high-heeled, buckled boots. His blue eyes were light, bright, and sparkling behind half-moon spectacles and his nose was very long and crooked, as though it had been broken at least twice. This man's name was Albus Dumbledore.**

"Like I said earlier, I would have loved to see Dursley's expression." Ginny said grinning.

**Albus Dumbledore didn't seem to realize that he had just arrived in a street where everything from his name to his boots was unwelcome.**

"That's because Dumbledore doesn't give a rat's fart about what other people think of him. He's my idol. Well, besides the Marauders," Lee amended.

"I forgot, you don't know who the Marauders' identities are, do you?" Ginny asked amazed.

"Do you know them?" Lee asked eagerly.

"Yes, and so do you," Ginny said and laughed at Lee's expression.

**He was busy rummaging in his cloak, looking for something. But he did seem to realize he was being watched, because he looked up suddenly at the cat, which was still staring at him from the other end of the street. For some reason, the sight of the cat seemed to amuse him. He chuckled and muttered, "I should have known."**

**He found what he was looking for in his inside pocket. It seemed to be a silver cigarette lighter. **

"Funny, I never would've thought he was a smoker," Dudley said.

**He flicked it open, held it up in the air, and clicked it. The nearest street lamp went out with a little pop.**

"Whoa, since when do cigarette lighters do that?" Gordon asked wide eyed.

Ginny did a face palm at his stupidity.

**He clicked it again — the next lamp flickered into darkness. Twelve times he clicked the Put-Outer, until the only lights left on the whole street were two tiny pinpricks in the distance, which were the eyes of the cat watching him. If anyone looked out of their window now, even beady-eyed Mrs. Dursley, they wouldn't be able to see anything that was happening down on the pavement. Dumbledore slipped the Put-Outer back inside his cloak and set off down the street toward number four, where he sat down on the wall next to the cat. He didn't look at it, but after a moment he spoke to it.**

**"Fancy seeing you here, Professor McGonagall."**

"Wait, that cat's a teacher?" Piers asked gob smacked.

"She prefers Professor." Ginny said impatiently.

**He turned to smile at the tabby, but it had gone. Instead he was smiling at a rather severe-looking woman who was wearing square glasses exactly the shape of the markings the cat had had around its eyes. She, too, was wearing a cloak, an emerald one. Her black hair was drawn into a tight bun. **

**She looked distinctly ruffled.**

**"How did you know it was me?" she asked.**

**"My dear Professor, I've never seen a cat sit so stiffly."**

**"You'd be stiff if you'd been sitting on a brick wall all day," said Professor McGonagall.**

**"All day? When you could have been celebrating? I must have passed a dozen feasts and parties on my way here."**

**Professor McGonagall sniffed angrily.**

"Great answer, Professor," Lee sniggered.

**"Oh yes, everyone's celebrating, all right," she said impatiently. "You'd think they'd be a bit more careful, but no — even the Muggles have noticed something's going on. It was on their news." She jerked her head back at the Dursleys' dark living-room window. "I heard it. Flocks of owls… shooting stars… Well, they're not completely stupid. They were bound to notice something. Shooting stars down in Kent — I'll bet that was Dedalus Diggle. He never had much sense."**

"What! That was amazing!" Lee protested.

"Lee, you were three," Neville said slowly.

"I know that. I meant the second time Harry defeated You-Know-Who."

"Though they weren't as good as the Weasley Wizard Wheezes firecrackers," Neville put in.

"Nothing, beats the twins firecrackers," Ginny smiled.

**You can't blame them," said Dumbledore gently. "We've had precious little to celebrate for eleven years."**

**"I know that," said Professor McGonagall irritably. "But that's no reason to lose our heads. People are being downright careless, out on the streets in broad daylight, not even dressed in Muggle clothes, swapping rumors."**

**She threw a sharp, sideways glance at Dumbledore here, as though hoping he was going to tell her something, but he didn't, so she went on. "A fine thing it would be if, on the very day You-Know-Who seems to have disappeared at last, the Muggles found out about us all. I suppose he really has gone, Dumbledore?"**

"If only," Neville muttered.

"Who's 'You-Know-Who?'" Piers asked. "The bloke's name was mentioned earlier by that old guy in the green cloak."

"The darkest wizard that ever lived," Lee supplied.

**"It certainly seems so," said Dumbledore. "We have much to be thankful for. Would you care for a lemon drop?"**

"Ugh, I hate those things. Disgusting," Gordon said, making a face.

**"A what?"**

**"A lemon drop. They're a kind of Muggle sweet I'm rather fond of."**

**"No, thank you," said Professor McGonagall coldly, as though she didn't think this was the moment for lemon drops.**

"What! It's always time for a lemon drop!" Lee joked and the other laughed.

**As I say, even if You-Know-Who has gone —"**

**"My dear Professor, surely a sensible person like yourself can call him by his name? All this 'You-Know-Who' nonsense — for eleven years I have been trying to persuade people to call him by his proper name: Voldemort."**

"Why are people scared to say the name?" Dudley asked. He had noticed Diggle and Jones hadn't said the name while they were in hiding.

"Imagine that the country is being controlled by a prejudice, megalomaniac where you're only safe if you hate muggles and you only have magical blood. And the megalomaniac in question feels no remorse for killing or torturing," Ginny explained.

"All right, I can see your point," Piers accepted.

"And to top it off with a cherry, if you say his name, his followers appear and torture you in if you're on their list. Or just kill you right on the spot," Neville said darkly.

Malcolm let out a low whistle. "That is one seriously jacked up bloke."

**Professor McGonagall flinched, but Dumbledore, who was unsticking two lemon drops, seemed not to notice. "It all gets so confusing if we keep saying 'You-Know-Who.' I have never seen any reason to be frightened of saying Voldemort's name."**

**"I know you haven't," said Professor McGonagall, sounding half exasperated, half admiring. "But you're different. Everyone knows you're the only one You-Know- oh, all right, Voldemort, was frightened of."**

**"You flatter me," said Dumbledore calmly. "Voldemort had powers I will never have."**

Lee snorted. "Like Dumbledore would ever use the Dark Arts.

**"Only because you're too — well —noble to use them."**

**"It's lucky it's dark. I haven't blushed so much since Madam Pomfrey told me she liked my new earmuffs."**

"Ok, I could have lived without the mental image," Ginny said looking a bit sick.

**Professor McGonagall shot a sharp look at Dumbledore and said "The owls are nothing next to the rumors that are flying around. You know what they're saying? About why he's disappeared? About what finally stopped him?"**

"That's what I've been asking!" Malcolm exclaimed.

Ginny gave him an odd look. "You haven't been asking."

"Well I've been thinking it," he muttered.

**It seemed that Professor McGonagall had reached the point she was most anxious to discuss, the real reason she had been waiting on a cold, hard wall all day, for neither as a cat nor as a woman had she fixed Dumbledore with such a piercing stare as she did now. It was plain that whatever "everyone" was saying, she was not going to believe it until Dumbledore told her it was true. Dumbledore, however, was choosing another lemon drop and did not answer.**

"I bet he did that on purpose," Neville chuckled.

**"What they're saying," she pressed on, "is that last night Voldemort turned up in Godric's Hollow. He went to find the Potters. The rumor is that Lily and James Potter are — are — that they're — dead."**

"Wait, Harry's parents were murdered?" Piers asked shocked.

Dudley's face was white. Harry had said that his parents had been killed by You-Know-Who, but he hadn't been sure if it was true or not because he had also been told that they died in a car crash and immediately felt guilty. Him, Piers, Malcolm, and Gordon had teased Harry for having no parents.

By a quick look around the room, he could tell his friends felt guilty, though not the latter.

Ginny nodded sadly. "Though only a few people know the true reason why Voldemort went after the Potters."

**Dumbledore bowed his head. Professor McGonagall gasped.**

**"Lily and James… I can't believe it… I didn't want to believe it… Oh, Albus…"**

"Wow, that's gotta be tough," Dudley winced.

Ginny chuckled darkly. "You should have heard McGonagall when she thought that Harry was dead."

"When Harry was what?" Dudley asked wide eyed, but Ginny waved it aside.

**Dumbledore reached out and patted her on the shoulder. "I know… I know…" he said heavily.**

**Professor McGonagall's voice trembled as she went on. "That's not all. They're saying he tried to kill the Potter's son, Harry.**

"Dang, people really wanted to kill, Harry," Lee joked to ease the tension. I think it's safe to say that he did about as good as Crabbe did on his O.W.L.'s.

**But he couldn't. He couldn't kill that little boy. No one knows why, or how, but they're saying that when he couldn't kill Harry Potter, Voldemort's power somehow broke — and that's why he's gone."**

"You-Know-Who has killed numerous witches and wizards, but he couldn't kill a year old baby?" Dudley asked strucked.

"Yeah, and that's why Harry's famous. Seventeen years ago, a dark wizard came to kill him. And why should have a baby stood a chance when countless stronger, older witches and wizards had been killed by him," Ginny said leaning in.

**This was why she had come. To tell these idiots that had tormented Harry in his childhood why fully grown people respected him.**

**Dumbledore nodded glumly.**

**"It's — it's true?" faltered Professor McGonagall. "After all he's done… all the people he's killed… he couldn't kill a little boy?**

"Did Harry ever find out why he couldn't kill him?" Dudley asked.

"Yes, he said two things about it. It would explain in the books that it was a power that Lord Voldemort could never comprehend and feared. And that it was cheesy," Ginny smirked.

**It's just astounding… of all the things to stop him… but how in the name of heaven did Harry survive?"**

**"We can only guess." said Dumbledore. "We may never know."**

"Translation: I know but I don't want to tell you because I want to keep my aura of mystery," Lee joked.

**Professor McGonagall pulled out a lace handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes beneath her spectacles. Dumbledore gave a great sniff as he took a golden watch from his pocket and examined it. It was a very odd watch. It had twelve hands but no numbers; instead, little planets were moving around the edge.**

"What kind of watch is that?" Malcolm asked.

"It's a more prehistoric version of the traditional coming of age watch that is given to wizards," Ginny said.

"That version was made 'round the time the wheel was invented." Lee said seriously, though the corner of his mouth twitched.

**It must have made sense to Dumbledore, though, because he put it back in his pocket and said, "Hagrid's late. I suppose it was he who told you I'd be here, by the way?"**

**"Yes," said Professor McGonagall. "And I don't suppose you're going to tell me why you're here, of all places?"**

**"I've come to bring Harry to his aunt and uncle. They're the only family he has left now."**

"Not anymore," Ginny murmured. Her mum considered Harry a son and Ginny thought of him as a family friend, since it would be pretty weird to snog your brother in the middle of the common room.

**"You don't mean – you can't mean the people who live here?" cried Professor McGonagall, jumping to her feet and pointing at number four. **

**"Dumbledore — you can't. I've been watching them all day. You couldn't find two people who are less like us. And they've got this son — I saw him kicking his mother all the way up the street, screaming for sweets. Harry Potter come and live here!"**

"At least someone tried to talk some sense into him," Ginny sighed.

**"It's the best place for him," said Dumbledore firmly. "His aunt and uncle will be able to explain everything to him when he's older. I've written them a letter."**

"Yes, because that went so well," Dudley muttered. He still had the scar from the pig tail.

**"A letter?" repeated Professor McGonagall faintly, sitting back down on the wall. "Really, Dumbledore, you think you can explain all this in a letter? These people will never understand him! He'll be famous — a legend — I wouldn't be surprised if today was known as Harry Potter day in the future**

"Harry would love that," Lee snickered.

"Lee, if you try to start that, he would be the first to hex you," Ginny said, fighting back a smile.

- there will be books written about Harry — every child in our world will know his name!"

**"Exactly," said Dumbledore, looking very seriously over the top of his half-moon glasses. "It would be enough to turn any boy's head. Famous before he can walk and talk! Famous for something he won't even remember! Can you see how much better off he'll be, growing up away from all that until he's ready to take it?"**

"I'm sorry. I just can't picture Harry as arrogant," Neville admitted. "But I have to say his noble side can get annoying sometimes."

"You have no idea," Ginny muttered.

**Professor McGonagall opened her mouth, changed her mind, swallowed, and then said, "Yes — yes, you're right, of course. But how is the boy getting here, Dumbledore?" She eyed his cloak suddenly as though she thought he might be hiding Harry underneath it.**

**"Hagrid's bringing him."**

**"You think it —wise — to trust Hagrid with something as important as this?"**

"Nice to know that McGonagall is the trusting type," Malcolm remarked, who had his legs over the back of an armchair.

**"I would trust Hagrid with my life," said Dumbledore.**

**"I'm not saying his heart isn't in the right place," said Professor McGonagall grudgingly, "but you can't pretend he's not careless. He does tend to — what was that?"**

**A low rumbling sound had broken the silence around them. It grew steadily louder as they looked up and down the street for some sign of a headlight; it swelled to a roar as they both looked up at the sky — and a huge motorcycle fell out of the air and landed on the road in front of them.**

**If the motorcycle was huge, it was nothing to the man sitting astride it.**

**He was almost twice as tall as a normal man and at least five times as wide. He looked simply too big to be allowed, and so wild — long tangles of bushy black hair and beard hid most of his face, he had hands the size of trash can lids, and his feet in their leather boots were like baby dolphins. In his vast, muscular arms he was holding a bundle of blankets.**

The Gryffindors laughed at the muggles reaction, sans Dudley who had met Hagrid-if by met you mean receiving a pig's tail.

**"Hagrid," said Dumbledore, sounding relieved. "At last. And where did you get that motorcycle?"**

**"Borrowed it, Professor Dumbledore, sir," said the giant, climbing carefully off the motorcycle as he spoke. "Young Sirius Black lent it to me. I've got him, sir."**

**"No problems, were there?"**

**"No, sir — house was almost destroyed, but I got him out all right before the Muggles started swarmin' around. He fell asleep as we was flyin' over Bristol."**

**Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall bent forward over the bundle of blankets. Inside, just visible, was a baby boy, fast asleep.**

**Under a tuft of jet-black hair over his forehead they could see a curiously shaped cut, like a bolt of lightning.**

Gordon was about to make a smart comment-er,- comment but didn't want to risk being on the receiving end of her wand.

**"Is that where —?" whispered Professor McGonagall.**

**"Yes," said Dumbledore. "He'll have that scar forever."**

**"Couldn't you do something about it, Dumbledore?"**

**"Even if I could, I wouldn't. Scars can come in handy.**

"Really? How so?" Piers asked sarcastically.

**I have one myself above my left knee that is a perfect map of the London Underground.**

"Huh, I guess that is pretty handy to have," Piers amended.

**Well — give him here, Hagrid — we'd better get this over with."**

**Dumbledore took Harry in his arms and turned toward the Dursleys' house.**

**"Could I — could I say good-bye to him, sir?" asked Hagrid. He bent his great, shaggy head over Harry and gave him what must have been a very scratchy, whiskery kiss. Then, suddenly, Hagrid let out a howl like a wounded dog.**

**"Shhh!" hissed Professor McGonagall, "You'll wake the Muggles!"**

"Please, I doubt a century worth of beauty sleep would help Dursley," Lee snorted.

"No amount of sleep would keep Dursley from being a git," Ginny amended to the great amusement to the others.

**"S-s-sorry," sobbed Hagrid, taking out a large, spotted handkerchief and burying his face in it. "But I c-c-can't stand it —Lily an' James dead — an' poor little Harry off ter live with Muggles —"**

**"Yes, yes, it's all very sad, but get a grip on yourself, Hagrid, or we'll be found," Professor McGonagall whispered, patting Hagrid gingerly on the arm as Dumbledore stepped over the low garden wall and walked to the front door. He laid Harry gently on the doorstep, took a letter out of his cloak, tucked it inside Harry's blankets, and then came back to the other two.**

**For a full minute the three of them stood and looked at the little bundle; Hagrid's shoulders shook, Professor McGonagall blinked furiously, and the twinkling light that usually shone from Dumbledore's eyes seemed to have gone out.**

"Oh no! Not the twinkle!" Lee yelled in mock horror.

**"Well," said Dumbledore finally, "that's that. We've no business staying here. We may as well go and join the celebrations."**

**"Yeah," said Hagrid in a very muffled voice, "I best get this bike away. G'night, Professor McGonagall — Professor Dumbledore, sir."**

**Wiping his streaming eyes on his jacket sleeve, Hagrid swung himself onto the motorcycle and kicked the engine into life; with a roar it rose into the air and off into the night.**

**"I shall see you soon, I expect, Professor McGonagall," said Dumbledore, nodding to her. Professor McGonagall blew her nose in reply.**

"I must do that the next time I see her," Lee said thoughtful.

Neville snorted. "Do that, and she would turn you into a toad.

**Dumbledore turned and walked back down the street. On the corner he stopped and took out the silver Put-Outer. He clicked it once, and twelve balls of light sped back to their street lamps so that Privet Drive glowed suddenly orange and he could make out a tabby cat slinking around the corner at the other end of the street. He could just see the bundle of blankets on the step of number four.**

**"Good luck, Harry," he murmured.**

"Like Harry has good luck," Neville muttered. "What? You know it's true." he said when Ginny threw him a look.

**He turned on his heel and with a swish of his cloak, he was gone.**

**A breeze ruffled the neat hedges of Privet Drive, which lay silent and tidy under the inky sky, the very last place you would expect astonishing things to happen. Harry Potter rolled over inside his blankets without waking up. One small hand closed on the letter beside him and he slept on, not knowing he was special, not knowing he was famous, not knowing he would be woken in a few hours' time by Mrs. Dursley's scream**

"What a lovely way to wake up," Piers muttered from his spot on the back of the couch.

**as she opened the front door to put out the milk bottles, nor that he would spend the next few weeks being prodded and pinched by his cousin Dudley…**

**He couldn't know that at this very moment, people meeting in secret all over the country were holding up their glasses and saying in hushed voices: "To Harry Potter — the boy who lived!"**

"The celebrations are better at the Three Broomsticks and the Leaky Cauldron," Neville said.

"That had to be the most boring chapter ever." Gordon complained.

"Well they're not for your entertainment," Ginny said crossly.

**"Chapter 2: The Vanishing Glass…"**


	3. The Vanishing Glass

**Well everyone here is Chapter 3 and once again credit goes to Wolfe luv**

**I do ****NOT ****own harry potter J.K. Rowling does**

**Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their nephew on the front step, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all.**

"Thrilling life," Lee said, bored.

**The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number four on the Dursleys' front door; it crept into their living room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Mr. Dursley had seen that fateful news report about the owls. Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed. Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-colored bonnets,**

"Great description of, Dud," Laughed Piers.

"Wait till it's your turn than you won't be saying that," Dudley snapped.

"You're right. He would say 'Great description of, Piers' though why he would refer to himself in the third person, I don't know." said Neville.

**but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby, and now the photographs showed a large blond boy riding his first bicycle, on a carousel at the fair, playing a computer game with his father, being hugged and kissed by his mother. The room held no sign at all that another boy lived in the house, too.**

"Of course there isn't," Ginny said bitterly.

**Yet Harry Potter was still there, asleep at the moment, but not for long. His Aunt Petunia was awake and it was her shrill voice that made the first noise of the day. **

**"Up! Get up! Now!" **

"Not one of the worst ways Harry has been woken up," said Neville.

"How so?" asked Gordon.

"Well waking up from nightmares that involve seeing the deceased come back as ghosts and watching someone die right in front of him and dueling Voldemort might just be a little worst," Neville pointed out.

Dudley blanched. He had made fun of his cousin for watching a person get killed and have his dead parents come back? No one wonder he'd gotten so serious.

**Harry woke with a start. His aunt rapped on the door again. **

"Impatient much," Ginny raised an eyebrow.

**"Up!" she screeched. Harry heard her walking toward the kitchen and then the sound of the frying pan being put on the stove. He rolled onto his back and tried to remember the dream he had been having. It had been a good one. There had been a flying motorcycle in it. He had a funny feeling he'd had the same dream before. **

"That's because you did have it before. And it wasn't a dream," Gordon said smartly, or as smartly as Gordon can.

Ginny shook her head. "You know it's bad when you're talking to inanimate objects."

**His aunt was back outside the door. **

**"Are you up yet?" she demanded. **

**"Nearly," said Harry. **

**"Well, get a move on, I want you to look after the bacon. And don't you dare let it burn, I want everything perfect on Duddy's birthday."**

The Gryffindors erupted into laughter along with Dudley's friends.

"I was hoping that wouldn't be in the book," he muttered.

**Harry groaned. **

**"What did you say?" his aunt snapped through the door.**

"Didn't realize she understood Troll," Lee snickered.

"Well she does live with Vernon and Dudley. Have to be able to understand them somehow," Ginny pointed out.

Dudley scowled while everyone else laughed.

**"Nothing, nothing…" **

**Dudley's birthday — how could he have forgotten? **

"Yes, how could you forget?" Lee said faking a tone of being affronted.

**Harry got slowly out of bed and started looking for socks. He found a pair under his bed and, after pulling a spider off one of them, put them on. Harry was used to spiders,**

"Good thing too. How else would have survived Hogwarts?" Lee asked.

"I have no idea," Piers answered.

Ginny gave him an odd look. "That was a rhetorical question."

**because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them, and that was where he slept. **

Ginny gave Dudley a look of deepest loathing and said, "You're so lucky that it's against wizarding law to use magic on muggles."

**When he was dressed he went down the hall into the kitchen. The table was almost hidden beneath all Dudley's birthday presents. It looked as though Dudley had gotten the new computer he wanted, not to mention the second television and the racing bike. Exactly why Dudley wanted a racing bike was a mystery to Harry, as Dudley was very fat and hated exercise**

"Nothing has ever been truer," Dudley muttered. He had hated how overweight he had been. Not that he had been picked on; people had been too scared to try.

**unless of course it involved punching somebody. **

And that was the reason why.

**Dudley's favorite punching bag was Harry, but he couldn't often catch him. **

"I've always wondered why we never could catch Potter," Malcolm asked thoughtfully.

"Well it might help to the fact that he wasn't a fat lazy git," Neville spat.

Gordon rolled his eyes. He still didn't believe that Potter did anything important. Ok, so he made some big dark wizard disappear when he was a year old. He got lucky. And no one gets lucky twice.

**Harry didn't look it, but he was very fast**.

"Well, if I had a choice of either being out of breath of going against four overweight idiots, I would take the former too," Lee said sarcastically.

**Perhaps it had something to do with living in a dark cupboard, but Harry had always been small and skinny for his age. **

"And that is one of the reasons why we bullied him," Gordon sneered. "He's so scrawny, and I don't believe all this rubbish you're saying that he supposedly did." He finished his rant breathing heavily in the deathly silence.

Dudley was afraid that Ginny was going to break the law and use magic on him. On the one hand he didn't want his friend to get hurt. On the other he wanted to see him get hurt. It was complicated.

**He looked even smaller and skinnier than he really was because all he had to wear were old clothes of Dudley's, and Dudley was about four times bigger than he was. Harry had a thin face, knobby knees, black hair, and bright green eyes.**

"He has the most amazing eyes," Ginny sighed.

**He wore round glasses held together with a lot of Scotch tape because of all the times Dudley had punched him on the nose. **

"Git," Lee 'coughed.'

**The only thing Harry liked about his own appearance was a very thin scar on his forehead that was shaped like a bolt of lightning. **

"Famous last words," Ginny muttered.

"Wouldn't it be thoughts?" Dudley asked and Ginny threw him a glare.

**He had had it as long as he could remember, and the first question he could ever remember asking his Aunt Petunia was how he had gotten it. **

**"In the car crash when your parents died," she had said. "And don't ask questions." **

**Don't ask questions — that was the first rule for a quiet life with the Dursleys. **

"Well that explains it!" Neville said exasperated.

Everyone gave him an odd look.

"Why he's so curious," Neville elaborated. "If the Dursley's allowed him to ask questions when he was younger, than maybe he wouldn't have been so curious in his first year. So, then, wouldn't have been almost killed."

Ginny nodded. "True, but if he hadn't been so curious, then the stone would've been stolen by Voldemort's servant. That would mean that Voldemort would have returned sooner."

"Besides," Lee grinned. "He wouldn't be Harry Potter if he didn't have curiosity."

"But curiosity killed the cat," Malcolm pointed out.

"But the curious cat saved the entire wizarding world."

**Uncle Vernon entered the kitchen as Harry was turning over the bacon. **

**"Comb your hair!" he barked, by way of a morning greeting. About once a week, Uncle Vernon looked over the top of his newspaper and shouted that Harry needed a haircut. Harry must have had more haircuts than the rest of the boys in his class put together, but it made no difference, his hair simply grew that way — all over the place. **

"Which is a good thing for Ginny," Lee sniggered.

Ginny quirked an eyebrow. "Meaning..."

"You're always twisting his hair in your hands when you're either A.) He's laying down on the floor and your sitting next to him or B.) You two snog each other in front of the entire common room," Neville said.

Gordon stared at Ginny like she suddenly grew wings. _So she won't go on a date with me. Me, who is tall, strong, and devilishly handsome. But she'll kiss that scrawny, gutless runt. I'll show her what she's missing. Potter can't compare to my title of strongest beench presser in the school, second to Dudley._

**Harry was frying eggs by the time Dudley arrived in the kitchen with his mother. Dudley looked a lot like Uncle Vernon. He had a large pink face, not much neck, small, watery blue eyes, and thick blond hair that lay smoothly on his thick, fat head. **

"Lovely description," Ginny smirked and the others failed to contain their laughter.

**Aunt Petunia often said that Dudley looked like a baby angel — Harry often said that Dudley looked like a pig in a wig. **

Ginny gave a small smile of amusement at Dudley's expense.

**Harry put the plates of egg and bacon on the table, which was difficult as there wasn't much room. Dudley, meanwhile, was counting his presents. His face fell. **

**"Thirty-six," he said, looking up at his mother and father. "That's two less than last year." **

Ginny gave Dudley a look of complete shock. "Thirty-six? You're complaining that you got thirty-six? I have six older brothers and all our presents combined is a little over forty."

"You have six older brothers?" Piers asked, gob-smacked.

"Yeah," Ginny said with a wryly. "Which makes guys think twice to use me if they're going to make a girl jealous."

**"Darling, you haven't counted Auntie Marge's present, see, it's here under this big one from Mummy and Daddy." **

**"All right, thirty-seven then," said Dudley, going red in the face. Harry, who could see a huge Dudley tantrum coming on, began wolfing down his bacon as fast as possible in case Dudley turned the table over. **

"Sorry, but were you eleven or six?" Neville asked, eyebrows raised.

**Aunt Petunia obviously scented danger, too, because she said quickly, "And we'll buy you another two presents while we're out today. How's that, popkin? Two more presents. Is that all right?"**

"So you got thirty-nine presents, and Harry got nothing. Okay, glad we settled that," Lee said in a confirming tone.

**Dudley thought for a moment. It looked like hard work. Finally he said slowly, "So I'll have thirty… thirty…"**

"Could you imagine if Dudley was in Ravenclaw?" Neville whispered to Lee.

"If Dudley was in Ravenclaw, god help the idiots in Slytherin," Lee muttered back.

**"Thirty-nine, sweetums," said Aunt Petunia. **

**"Oh." Dudley sat down heavily and grabbed the nearest parcel. "All right then." **

**Uncle Vernon chuckled. **

**"Little tyke wants his money's worth, just like his father. 'Atta boy, Dudley!" He ruffled Dudley's hair.**

**At that moment the telephone rang and Aunt Petunia went to answer it while Harry and Uncle Vernon watched Dudley unwrap the racing bike, a video camera, a remote control airplane, sixteen new computer games, and a VCR. **

**He was ripping the paper off a gold wristwatch **

"Ha, ours are still better," Lee rubbed in.

"I thought we already established this?" Dudley asked.

Ginny rolled her eyes. "We did. But that doesn't erase the fact that Lee is twenty-one years old and acts like he's eight."

"Why act mature?" Lee said nonchantly. "It sucks all the fun out of life. Then again, so does being a prefect."

"I have to agree with you there," Ginny sighed in defeat.

**when Aunt Petunia came back from the telephone looking both angry and worried.**

**"Bad news, Vernon," she said. "Mrs. Figg's broken her leg. She can't take him." She jerked her head in Harry's direction. **

**Dudley's mouth fell open in horror, but Harry's heart gave a leap. Every year on Dudley's birthday, his parents took him and a friend out for the day, to adventure parks, hamburger restaurants, or the movies. Every year, Harry was left behind with Mrs. Figg, a mad old lady who lived two streets away. Harry hated it there. The whole house smelled of cabbage and Mrs. Figg made him look at photographs of all the cats she'd ever owned. **

**"Now what?" said Aunt Petunia, looking furiously at Harry as though he'd planned this. **

"If he did plan that I will worship him," Lee said getting on his knees with his hands held out in front of him like he was bowing to an emperor.

The muggles and the other two Gryffindors chuckled.

"I have said it once and I will say it again; if you do that, Harry will be the first to hex you."

**Harry knew he ought to feel sorry that Mrs. Figg had broken her leg, but it wasn't easy when he reminded himself it would be a whole year before he had to look at Tibbles, Snowy, Mr. Paws, and Tufty again. **

**"We could phone Marge," Uncle Vernon suggested. **

**"Don't be silly, Vernon, she hates the boy." **

"I'm pretty sure the feeling is mutual," Dudley sniggered.

**The Dursleys often spoke about Harry like this, as though he wasn't there — or rather, as though he was something very nasty that couldn't understand them, like a slug. **

**"What about what's-her-name, your friend — Yvonne?" **

**"On vacation in Majorca," snapped Aunt Petunia. **

**"You could just leave me here," Harry put in hopefully (he'd be able to watch what he wanted on television for a change and maybe even have a go on Dudley's computer). **

**Aunt Petunia looked as though she'd just swallowed a lemon. **

"Now that's an idea..." Lee said thoughtfully. Dudley scooted his chair away.

**"And come back and find the house in ruins?" he snarled. **

"No, but I'm pretty sure my dad did a pretty good job with your living room," Ginny said, glancing at the innocent looking fireplace.

**"I won't blow up the house," said Harry,**

"Nope, only your aunt," Lee laughed

**but they weren't listening. **

**"I suppose we could take him to the zoo," said Aunt Petunia slowly, "… and leave him in the car…" **

**"That car's new, he's not sitting in it alone…" **

**Dudley began to cry loudly. In fact, he wasn't really crying — it had been years since he'd really cried — but he knew that if he screwed up his face and wailed, his mother would give him anything he wanted. **

Ginny gave another disgusted glare at Dudley.

"I swear it is lucky that Harry didn't turn out like a spoiled brat like you or a masochistic person who delves into the sick, twisted ways of the Dark Arts," Ginny finished breathing heavily through her nose.

Dudley stared. When he thought about it, he supposed-no, he knew he was lucky that Harry wasn't like all of what Ginny said.

Hell, he was lucky that Harry hadn't even hexed him when he had made fun of Harry yelling in his sleep. Instead Harry had saved him from rocking back and forth in a white padded room in a vegetated state.

**"Dinky Duddydums, don't cry, Mummy won't let him spoil your special day!" she cried, flinging her arms around him. **

**"I… don't… want… him… t-t-to come!" Dudley yelled between huge, pretend sobs. "He always sp-spoils everything!" He shot Harry a nasty grin through the gap in his mother's arms. **

Ginny muttered a string of profanities under her breath.

**Just then, the doorbell rang — "Oh, good Lord, they're here!" said Aunt Petunia frantically — and a moment later, Dudley's best friend, Piers Polkiss, walked in with his mother. Piers was a scrawny boy with a face like a rat. **

"I just love Harry's descriptions." Lee laughed. "Face like a rat and pig in a wig? Hilarious!"

"Just wait till we get to Snape's," laughed Ginny. Harry had told her that Snape had been on their side the whole time and sacrificed himself again and again for Dumbledore at the risk of being killed by the most ruthless, sociopathic person that ever lived.

Didn't stop him from being a prat.

**He was usually the one who held people's arms behind their backs while Dudley hit them. Dudley stopped pretending to cry at once. **

And the list of profanities continued.

**Half an hour later, Harry, who couldn't believe his luck, was sitting in the back of the Dursleys' car with Piers and Dudley, on the way to the zoo for the first time in his life. His aunt and uncle hadn't been able to think of anything else to do with him, but before they'd left, Uncle Vernon had taken Harry aside. **

**"I'm warning you," he had said, putting his large purple face right up close to Harry's, **

**"I'm warning you now, boy — any funny business, anything at all — and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas." **

"Too bad he's going to be at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry where he gets in more danger than the year before. But thanks for the offer," said Neville sarcastically.

**"I'm not going to do anything," said Harry, "honestly…"**

**But Uncle Vernon didn't believe him. No one ever did. **

**The problem was, strange things often happened around Harry and it was just no good telling the Dursleys he didn't make them happen. **

**Once, Aunt Petunia, tired of Harry coming back from the barbers looking as though he hadn't been at all, had taken a pair of kitchen scissors and cut his hair so short he was almost bald except for his bangs, which she left "to hide that horrible scar." **

"As much as I hate Potter, I have to admit, he has a wicked scar," Gordon grinned, obviously trying to get on Ginny's good side.

Ginny gave him a cold look. "Yes, having an unfeeling, sadist trying to kill you and leaving a scar as a reminder that he killed your parents is wicked."

Gordon scowled while Lee and Neville tried-key word being tried- hiding their smiles.

**Dudley had laughed himself silly at Harry, who spent a sleepless night imagining school the next day, where he was already laughed at for his baggy clothes and taped glasses. Next morning, however, he had gotten up to find his hair exactly as it had been before Aunt Petunia had sheared it off. **

**He had been given a week in his cupboard for this, even though he had tried to explain that he couldn't explain how it had grown back so quickly. **

**Another time, Aunt Petunia had been trying to force him into a revolting old sweater of Dudley's (brown with orange puff balls). **

"And Ron complains about maroon sweaters from mum," Ginny scoffed.

**The harder she tried to pull it over his head, the smaller it seemed to become, until finally it might have fitted a hand puppet, but certainly wouldn't fit Harry. Aunt Petunia had decided it must have shrunk in the wash and, to his great relief, Harry wasn't punished. **

**On the other hand, he'd gotten into terrible trouble for being found on the roof of the school kitchens. Dudley's gang had been chasing him as usual when, as much to Harry's surprise as anyone else's, there he was sitting on the chimney. **

"Wow, an angry letter I'm so terrified," Lee snorted.

"What if it was a Howler?" Ginny asked.

"If it was a Howler I would've chucked it out the window and have Grawp sit on it."

**The Dursleys had received a very angry letter from Harry's headmistress telling them Harry had been climbing school buildings. But all he'd tried to do (as he shouted at Uncle Vernon through the locked door of his cupboard) was jump behind the big trash cans outside the kitchen doors. Harry supposed that the wind must have caught him in mid-jump. **

**But today, nothing was going to go wrong. It was even worth being with Dudley and Piers to be spending the day somewhere that wasn't school, his cupboard, or Mrs. Figg's cabbage-smelling living room. **

**While he drove, Uncle Vernon complained to Aunt Petunia. He liked to complain about things: people at work, Harry, the council, Harry, the bank, and Harry were just a few of his favorite subjects. **

"Is it just me, or does it seem like Dursley likes to complain about Harry?" Neville asked.

"No, it's not just you. But I think he likes to complain about Harry a little too much," Ginny glowered.

**This morning, it was motorcycles. **

**"… roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums," he said, as a motorcycle overtook them. **

**"I had a dream about a motorcycle," said Harry, remembering suddenly. "It was flying." **

**Uncle Vernon nearly crashed into the car in front. He turned right around in his seat and yelled at Harry, his face like a gigantic beet with a mustache: **

**"MOTORCYCLES DON'T FLY!" **

"They do if they belong to innocent convicted murderers that go by the name of Sirius Black!" Lee piped up.

**Dudley and Piers sniggered. **

**"I know they don't," said Harry. "It was only a dream." **

**But he wished he hadn't said anything. If there was one thing the Dursleys hated even more than his asking questions, it was his talking about anything acting in a way it shouldn't, no matter if it was in a dream or even a cartoon — they seemed to think he might get dangerous ideas. **

"What? Harry never has dangerous ideas!" Lee yelled in mock outrage.

"Except when he's being a stupid, noble git," Ginny joined in.

**It was a very sunny Saturday and the zoo was crowded with families. The Dursleys bought Dudley and Piers large chocolate ice creams at the entrance and then, because the smiling lady in the van had asked Harry what he wanted before they could hurry him away, they bought him a cheap lemon ice pop. **

"Boring," Piers yawned.

**It wasn't bad, either, Harry thought, licking it as they watched a gorilla scratching its head who looked remarkably like Dudley, except that it wasn't blond. **

"Wait, so does Dudley look like a pig in a wig or a gorilla?" Lee asked intrigued.

**Harry had the best morning he'd had in a long time. He was careful to walk a little way apart from the Dursleys so that Dudley and Piers, who were starting to get bored with the animals by lunchtime, wouldn't fall back on their favorite hobby of hitting him. **

**They ate in the zoo restaurant, and when Dudley had a tantrum because his knickerbocker glory didn't have enough ice cream on top, Uncle Vernon bought him another one and Harry was allowed to finish the first. **

"Definitely a pig," Ginny sniggered.

**Harry felt, afterward, that he should have known it was all too good to last. **

"And there goes his optimism," Lee mocked sigh.

"What optimism? He's the most pessimistic person I know!" Neville exclaimed

**After lunch they went to the reptile house. It was cool and dark in there, with lit windows all along the walls. Behind the glass, all sorts of lizards and snakes were crawling and slithering over bits of wood and stone. Dudley and Piers wanted to see huge, poisonous cobras and thick, man-crushing pythons. Dudley quickly found the largest snake in the place. It could have wrapped its body twice around Uncle Vernon's car and crushed it into a trash can — but at the moment it didn't look in the mood. In fact, it was fast asleep. **

"Not the biggest reptile I've ever seen," Ginny murmured

Malcolm raised his eyebrows.

"That thing was fifteen feet long!" Piers cried in indignation.

"So, the monsturous beasts in our world would make that thing look like a twig," Ginny said enjoying the thunder-struck looks of the muggles.

**Dudley stood with his nose pressed against the glass, staring at the glistening brown coils. **

**"Make it move," he whined at his father. Uncle Vernon tapped on the glass, but the snake didn't budge. **

**"Do it again," Dudley ordered. Uncle Vernon rapped the glass smartly with his knuckles, but the snake just snoozed on. **

**"This is boring," Dudley moaned. He shuffled away.**

"Had you ever considered that the snake was bored with having people press their faces against the glass and tapping on it?" Ginny asked annoyed.

Dudley blushed. The truth was that he had wanted the snake to do something impressive that he would never forget. Well, it looked like he got it, he thought wryly.

**Harry moved in front of the tank and looked intently at the snake. He wouldn't have been surprised if it had died of boredom itself — no company except stupid people drumming their fingers on the glass trying to disturb it all day long. It was worse than having a cupboard as a bedroom, where the only visitor was Aunt Petunia hammering on the door to wake you up; at least he got to visit the rest of the house. **

**The snake suddenly opened its beady eyes. Slowly, very slowly, it raised its head until its eyes were on a level with Harry's. **

**It winked. **

"Always knew there was something funny with Potter. He can't make friends with people, so he settles with the reptiles," Gordon said scornfully. He was bitter that Ginger kept shooting him down with his offers.

"What am I? A Flobberworm?" Lee asked in mock indignation.

**Harry stared. Then he looked quickly around to see if anyone was watching. They weren't. He looked back at the snake and winked, too. **

**The snake jerked its head toward Uncle Vernon and Dudley, then raised its eyes to the ceiling. It gave Harry a look that said quite plainly: **

**"I get that all the time."**

"Since when can Potter understand Snakeian," Malcolm demanded.

"The correct term is Parseltongue, and to answer your other idiotic question you'll just have to find out." Ginny replied dryly.

**I know," Harry murmured through the glass, though he wasn't sure the snake could hear him. "It must be really annoying." **

**The snake nodded vigorously. **

**"Where do you come from, anyway?" Harry asked. **

**The snake jabbed its tail at a little sign next to the glass. Harry peered at it. **

_**Boa Constrictor, Brazil.**_

**"Was it nice there?" **

**The boa constrictor jabbed its tail at the sign again and Harry read on: This specimen was bred in the zoo. "Oh, I see — so you've never been to Brazil?" **

"It's official. Harry has finally lost his marbles," Lee announced. Then he dodged the Full Body Bind shot at him by Ginny.

**As the snake shook its head, a deafening shout behind Harry made both of them jump. "DUDLEY! MR. DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT IT'S DOING!" **

**Dudley came waddling toward them as fast as he could. **

**"Out of the way, you," he said, punching Harry in the ribs. **

Dudley received one of Ginny's infamous glares that made him flinch when she fingered her wand.

**Caught by surprise, Harry fell hard on the concrete floor. **

**What came next happened so fast no one saw how it happened — one second, Piers and Dudley were leaning right up close to the glass, the next, they had leapt back with howls of horror. **

**Harry sat up and gasped; the glass front of the boa constrictor's tank had vanished. **

"How did Potter mange to do that?" Piers asked impatiently.

Ginny rolled her eyes. "It's called accidental magic. It happens when a young witch or wizard without any training unleashes magic when they're feeling angry or scared."

"Is it the same with every wizard?" Dudley asked.

"A rare when one can do it when they're not feeling one of those emotions. The person would have to be unnaturally talented. Of course the other exception to that rule is that the wizard would be curious about said talent and would try to control it and bend it to their will."

**The great snake was uncoiling itself rapidly, slithering out onto the floor. People throughout the reptile house screamed and started running for the exits. **

**As the snake slid swiftly past him, Harry could have sworn a low, hissing voice said, "Brazil, here I come… Thanksss, amigo." **

"What'd you know? The snake has better manners than you two do," Neville sniggered.

"Did the snake ever make it to Brazil?" Dudley asked for a topic change. He did not like reading about how much of a prat he'd been.

Ginny looked thoughtful. "I have no idea," she murmured.

**The keeper of the reptile house was in shock.**

**"But the glass," he kept saying, "where did the glass go?" **

"Well, you see, Harry did this little thing I like to call magic," Lee said slowly to the book that could not answer him.

**The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong, sweet tea while he apologized over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber. As far as Harry had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed, but by the time they were all back in Uncle Vernon's car, Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bitten off his leg, while Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death.**

"Liar!" Lee coughed.

"Like Potter hasn't lied before," Piers accused.

"I won't deny the truth," Lee said wryly. "But when Harry does it, it's for doing the right thing; not trying to get someone in trouble for something they didn't do. Though trying to get someone in trouble for something they didn't do falls under the category of 'doing the right thing' in my book." He grinned.

**But worst of all, for Harry at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, "Harry was talking to it, weren't you, Harry?" **

"Idiot!" Ginny hissed while she slapped Piers upside the head.

**Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house before starting on Harry. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, "Go — cupboard — stay — no meals," before he collapsed into a chair, and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy. **

**Harry lay in his dark cupboard much later, wishing he had a watch. He didn't know what time it was and he couldn't be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, he couldn't risk sneaking to the kitchen for some food. **

"It looks like the only good thing the Dursley's did was help hone Harry's sneaking and lying skills," Lee said mischievously.

Dudley made a mental note to never ask why Lee had that look in his eye. He had a feeling he would find out soon.

**He'd lived with the Dursleys almost ten years, ten miserable years, as long as he could remember, ever since he'd been a baby and his parents had died in that car crash. He couldn't remember being in the car when his parents had died. **

**Sometimes, when he strained his memory during long hours in his cupboard, he came up with a strange vision: a blinding flash of green light and a burning pain on his forehead. **

"And the dementors didn't help any," Ginny said bitterly.

**This, he supposed, was the crash, though he couldn't imagine where all the green light came from. **

**He couldn't remember his parents at all. His aunt and uncle never spoke about them, and of course he was forbidden to ask questions. **

**There were no photographs of them in the house. **

**When he had been younger, Harry had dreamed and dreamed of some unknown relation coming to take him away, but it had never happened; **

"Yet anyway," Lee said mysteriously.

**the Dursleys were his only family. **

"For now," Lee said again. Ginny threw him a frustrated look.

**Yet sometimes he thought (or maybe hoped) that strangers in the street seemed to know him. Very strange strangers they were, too.**

"Yes indeed," Lee said stroking an imaginary beard.

The irritated looks from Ginny was starting to become a regular occurrence.

**A tiny man in a violet top hat had bowed to him once while out shopping with Aunt Petunia and Dudley. **

"The only wizard I know that would wear a purple hat would have to be Dedalus Diggle." Lee said.

"And Dumbledore," Neville grinned. "What?" he asked when Ginny raised an eyebrow. "It could happen."

**After asking Harry furiously if he knew the man, Aunt Petunia had rushed them out of the shop without buying anything. A wild-looking old woman dressed all in green had waved merrily at him once on a bus. A bald man in a very long purple coat**

"More like a cloak," one of the Gryffindors muttered.

**had actually shaken his hand in the street the other day and then walked away without a word. The weirdest thing about all these people was the way they seemed to vanish the second Harry tried to get a closer look.**

**At school, Harry had no one. Everybody knew that Dudley's gang hated that odd Harry Potter in his baggy old clothes and broken glasses, and nobody liked to disagree with Dudley's gang.**

"That sounds like a threat if I ever heard one," Ginny accused looking at Dudley's friends.

"Hey, there's no need to be like that, Ginger. We just needed to make sure that nobody sympathized for the freak when we beat him up," Gordon said grinning.

"Yes, because that makes it so much better," Ginny snapped and decked Gordon in the face.


	4. The Letter's From No One

**Well Everyone here is Chapter 4! Once again credit goes to Wolfe luv **

**Disclaimer:I do not own J.K Rowling!**

Dudley stared in shock as Gordon clutched his nose where blood was flowing and moaning in pain.

"Did you have to hit so hard?" Gordon complained trying to soothe the throbbing, but resulting in the flow to quicken.

"Yes, I did. And I did it because I don't like it when guys hit on me when I'm dating someone," Ginny snapped with her arms folded in front of her.

"Can you at least do something to stem the blood flow? My mum's going to kill me if blood gets on the carpet," Dudley said.

"Don't worry, Dud, if your mum doesn't kill you, Ginny probably will," Lee winked.

"Ginny, I think you better fix it. I'm going to get sick if I have to see that mess on his face," Neville said disgusted.

Gordon had blood on his shirt from where it was dripping from his chin and a nose that was squashed like a tomato.

"Alright," Ginny sighed. "Come here and I'll put it back to the way it was before I'd knocked you flat on your back."

Gordon groaned when he got up and walked over to Ginny who had her wand out.

"Episkey!" Ginny cried and Gordon's nose straightened in a second. She then pointed her wand at his shirt and murmured, "Terego" and all the blood was siphoned off.

"What did those spells do?" Malcolm asked.

Dudley listened carefully. His parents might not care about the magical world, but he did.

"Well the first spell was supposed to fix your nose and stop the blood. The second did its job of removing the blood," Neville explained.

"Wait, I thought you weren't allowed to do magic in front of us," Piers accused. "That witch McGonagall said something how the muggles were going to find out that magic exists."

"Usually yes, but were on straight orders from Kingsley Shacklebolt, the Minister of Magic, to bring these books to you lot so you know why the Dursleys had to leave and why the rest of you really shouldn't get on Harry's bad side," Neville explained.

"And you definitely don't want to get on the bad side of Harry Potter. I've heard that he can get a nasty temper when he gets mad," Lee grinned.

"Now, can I cast the spell so the book can continue?" Ginny asked.

They all nodded and went backed to their seats while Ginny mumbled a spell that caused to rise into the air once again and flip to the correct page.

**"The Letters from No one,"** the book read.

**The escape of the Brazilian boa constrictor earned Harry his longest-ever punishment. By the time he was allowed out of his cupboard again, the summer holidays had started and Dudley had already broken his new video camera, crashed his remote control airplane, and, first time out on his racing bike, knocked down old Mrs. Figg as she crossed Privet Drive on her crutches.**

**Harry was glad school was over, but there was no escaping Dudley's gang, who visited the house every single day. Piers, Dennis, Malcolm, and Gordon were all big and stupid, but as Dudley was the biggest and stupidest of the lot, he was the leader. **

"Harry has some very interesting logic," Neville raising his eyebrows. "Whatever happened to Dennis anyway?"

Dudley shrugged. "He got caught with some alcohol in his room so his parents sent him to a camp to sort out his problem." **(A/N: I have no idea if this is true or not. I just didn't want to bring him in because I don't like it that he has the same name as innocent Dennis Creevey who lost his brother Colin.)**

"At least there will be one less person who will mess their life up," Ginny sighed.

**The rest of them were all quite happy to join in Dudley's favorite sport: Harry Hunting. **

"I wonder how they would take to a game where Ginny hunted them down and jinx them into oblivion," Lee muttered to Neville.

**This was why Harry spent as much time as possible out of the house, wandering around and thinking about the end of the holidays, where he could see a tiny ray of hope. When September came he would be going off to secondary school and, for the first time in his life, he wouldn't be with Dudley. **

**Dudley had been accepted at Uncle Vernon's old private school, Smeltings. Piers Polkiss was going there too. Harry, on the other hand, was going to Stonewall High, the local public school.**

Lee snorted. "Dursley wishes."

**Dudley thought this was very funny. **

**"They stuff people's heads down the toilet the first day at Stonewall," he told Harry. "Want to come upstairs and practice?" **

**"No, thanks," said Harry. "The poor toilet's never had anything as horrible as your head down it — it might be sick." **

"And yet he never came with me, Fred, and George when we were pulling pranks." Lee shook his head in disappointment.

"Could you imagine the mayhem that would cause?" Neville arched an eyebrow.

"Yes, and I see a world where nothing is normal."

"Already there," Ginny muttered.

**Then he ran, before Dudley could work out what he'd said. **

"But where's that Gryffindor courage?" Lee joked.

**One day in July, Aunt Petunia took Dudley to London to buy his Smeltings uniform, leaving Harry at Mrs. Figg's. Mrs. Figg wasn't as bad as usual. It turned out she'd broken her leg tripping over one of her cats, and she didn't seem quite as fond of them as before.**

"I wouldn't either," Lee snorted.

**She let Harry watch television and gave him a bit of chocolate cake that tasted as though she had it for several years. That evening, Dudley paraded around the living room for the family in his brand-new uniform. Smeltings' boys wore maroon tailcoats, orange knickerbockers, and flat straw hats called boaters. **

"That is ghastly. I'm so glad we only have to wear white button shirts, black pants, sweaters, ties, and black robes," Ginny said.

"You can't forget about the pointed hat!" Lee cheered.

**They also carried knobby sticks, used for hitting each other while the teachers weren't looking. This was supposed to be good training for later life. **

"Exactly how is that good training?" Ginny asked Dudley and Piers who shrugged.

**As he looked at Dudley in his new knickerbockers, Uncle Vernon said gruffly that it was the proudest moment of his life. Aunt Petunia burst into tears and said she couldn't believe it was her Ickle Dudleykins, he looked so handsome and grown-up. Harry didn't trust himself to speak. He thought two of his ribs might already have cracked from trying not to laugh. **

"Don't worry Harry, we'll do it for you," Lee said as he gasped for breath.

"Mate, I think I may already have," Neville guffawed.

**There was a horrible smell in the kitchen the next morning when Harry went in for breakfast. It seemed to be coming from a large metal tub in the sink. He went to have a look. The tub was full of what looked like dirty rags swimming in gray water. **

**"What's this?" he asked Aunt Petunia. Her lips tightened as they always did if he dared to ask a question. **

**"Your new school uniform," she said. **

**Harry looked in the bowl again. **

**"Oh," he said, "I didn't realize it had to be so wet." **

"I'm surprised Harry hasn't gotten more detention from Snape with that kind of cheek," Lee chuckled.

"Oh, he has. You should hear what he said to Snape in our first Defense against the Dark Arts class in our sixth year. 'Course, he wasn't trying to be a smart aleck, which makes it that much more hilarious."

**"Don't be stupid," snapped Aunt Petunia. "I'm dying some of Dudley's old things gray for you. It'll look just like everyone else's when I've finished." **

**Harry seriously doubted this, but thought it best not to argue. **

"That's a first," Lee laughed.

**He sat down at the table and tried not to think about how he was going to look on his first day at Stonewall High — like he was wearing bits of old elephant skin, probably. **

**Dudley and Uncle Vernon came in, both with wrinkled noses because of the smell from Harry's new uniform. Uncle Vernon opened his newspaper as usual and Dudley banged his Smelting stick, which he carried everywhere, on the table. **

**They heard the click of the mail slot and flop of letters on the doormat. **

**"Get the mail, Dudley," said Uncle Vernon from behind his paper. **

"I feel a disturbance in the force," Lee said spiritually.

**"Make Harry get it." **

**"Get the mail, Harry." **

"All is right again," Lee sighed making the others laugh.

**"Make Dudley get it." **

"This is what we call a tennis match conversation. It usually happens between me and my siblings," Ginny said.

**"Poke him with your Smelting stick, Dudley." **

**Harry dodged the Smelting stick **

"Well, if Harry can dodge a Bludger, then I'm pretty sure he can dodge a piece of wood," Neville snorted.

"A what?" Piers asked.

"A small black ball that flies around trying to knock players off brooms and speeds so fast it's a blur," Ginny said.

Dudley wondered why the girl was explaining other than Lee or Neville, but thought best not to bring it up. If only Gordon had thought to take the advice.

"Why's Ginger talking 'bout sports like she knows how to play the game? I doubt she even knows how to play." Gordon sneered.

The room went quiet as Lee and Neville shook their head, as if saying, 'are you trying to get on her bad side?' Dudley began wondering if his friend had a death sentence.

He could see Ginny's hand flexing, as if trying to restrain the anger of putting Gordon flat on his back again.

"I know you did not just say that," Ginny said dangerously.

"You better start sleeping with one eye open otherwise think of some excuses to why you're bruised black and blue," Neville said.

**and went to get the mail. Three things lay on the doormat: a postcard from Uncle Vernon's sister Marge, who was vacationing on the Isle of Wight, a brown envelope that looked like a bill, and — a letter for Harry. **

**Harry picked it up and stared at it, his heart twanging like a giant elastic band. No one, ever, in his whole life, had written to him. Who would? **

"Friends, admirers, and people thinking he's completely bonkers," Lee said cheerfully.

**He had no friends, no other relatives — he didn't belong to the library, so he'd never even got rude notes asking for books back. Yet here it was, a letter, addressed so plainly there could be no mistake: **

_**Mr. H. Potter**_

_**The Cupboard under the Stairs**_

_**4 Privet Drive**_

_**Little Whinging**_

_**Surrey**_

Malcolm raised his hand "Question: If the letter was addressed to Harry's cupboard, how come McGonagall didn't do anything about it?"

Ginny sighed. "Hogwarts uses Self-Address Quills, so there was no way of them knowing."

**The envelope was thick and heavy, made of yellowish parchment, and the address was written in emerald-green ink. There was no stamp. **

**Turning the envelope over, his hand trembling, Harry saw a purple wax seal bearing a coat of arms; a lion, an eagle, a badger, and a snake surrounding a large letter H. **

**"Hurry up, boy!" shouted Uncle Vernon from the kitchen. "What are you doing, checking for letter bombs?" He chuckled at his own joke. **

"Kill me now," Lee begged while he mimed tying a noose around his neck and pulling the end of an imaginary rope.

**Harry went back to the kitchen, still staring at his letter. He handed Uncle Vernon the bill and the postcard, sat down, and slowly began to open the yellow envelope. Uncle Vernon ripped open the bill, snorted in disgust, and flipped over the postcard. **

**"Marge's ill," he informed Aunt Petunia. "Ate a funny whelk…" **

**"Dad!" said Dudley suddenly. "Dad, Harry's got something!" **

"That was none of your business!" Ginny hissed.

**Harry was on the point of unfolding his letter, which was written on the same heavy parchment as the envelope, when it was jerked sharply out of his hand by Uncle Vernon. **

**"That's mine!" said Harry, trying to snatch it back. **

**"Who'd be writing to you?" sneered Uncle Vernon, shaking the letter open with one hand and glancing at it. His face went from red to green faster than a set of traffic lights. And it didn't stop there. Within seconds it was the grayish white of old porridge. **

"Do you think Tonks could've done that?" Lee asked, interested.

"I don't know..." Ginny said thoughtfully.

**"P-P-Petunia!" he gasped. **

**Dudley tried to grab the letter to read it, but Uncle Vernon held it high out of his reach. Aunt Petunia took it curiously and read the first line. For a moment it looked as though she might faint. She clutched her throat and made a choking noise. **

"Never mind, she should go to W.A.D.A." Lee chuckled.

"Except that there's one little thing she's missing," Ginny giggled.

"What's that?" Lee asked confused.

"She's not a witch, mate," Dudley laughed.

**"Vernon! Oh my goodness — Vernon!" **

"I stand by what I said," Lee said stubbornly.

**They stared at each other, seeming to have forgotten that Harry and Dudley were still in the room. Dudley wasn't used to being ignored. He gave his father a sharp tap on the head with his Smelting stick.**

**"I want to read that letter," he said loudly.**

**"I want to read it," said Harry furiously, "as it's mine." **

**"Get out, both of you," croaked Uncle Vernon, stuffing the letter back inside its envelope. **

**Harry didn't move. **

**"I WANT MY LETTER!" he shouted. **

"There's the temper, though I didn't think it would've appeared so soon," Ginny laughed.

**"Let me see it!" demanded Dudley. **

**"OUT!" roared Uncle Vernon, and he took both Harry and Dudley by the scruffs of their necks and threw them into the hall, slamming the kitchen door behind them. Harry and Dudley promptly had a furious but silent fight over who would listen at the keyhole; Dudley won, so Harry, his glasses dangling from one ear, lay flat on his stomach to listen at the crack between door and floor. **

**"Vernon," Aunt Petunia was saying in a quivering voice, "look at the address — how could they possibly know where he sleeps? You don't think they're watching the house?" **

**"Watching — spying — might be following us," muttered Uncle Vernon wildly. **

"Don't flatter yourself," Lee muttered.

**"But what should we do, Vernon? Should we write back? Tell them we don't want —" **

**Harry could see Uncle Vernon's shiny black shoes pacing up and down the kitchen. **

**"No," he said finally. "No, we'll ignore it. If they don't get an answer… Yes, that's best… we won't do anything…" **

**"But —" **

**"I'm not having one in the house, Petunia! Didn't we swear when we took him in we'd stamp out that dangerous nonsense?" **

The room went deathly quiet.

"Stamp out?" Ginny said in a deadly whisper. She turned her full glare on the muggles ho flinched back. She had to remind herself that it wasn't their fault. It was that walking tub of lard, Vernon Dursley's.

**That evening when he got back from work, Uncle Vernon did something he'd never done before; he visited Harry in his cupboard. **

**"Where's my letter?" said Harry, the moment Uncle Vernon had squeezed through the door. "Who's writing to me?" **

**"No one. It was addressed to you by mistake," said Uncle Vernon shortly. "I have burned it." **

**"It was not a mistake," said Harry angrily, "it had my cupboard on it." **

**"SILENCE!" yelled Uncle Vernon, and a couple of spiders fell from the ceiling. **

**He took a few deep breaths and then forced his face into a smile, which looked quite painful.**

**"Er — yes, Harry — about this cupboard. Your aunt and I have been thinking… you're really getting a bit big for it… we think it might be nice if you moved into Dudley's second bedroom. **

"About damn time," Lee muttered.

**"Why?" said Harry. **

**"Don't ask questions!" snapped his uncle. "Take this stuff upstairs, now." **

**The Dursleys' house had four bedrooms: one for Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia, one for visitors (usually Uncle Vernon's sister, Marge), **

"I can see why he wouldn't want to sleep in that room. It's been tainted by the Mad Cow," Lee cringed in horror.

**one where Dudley slept, and one where Dudley kept all the toys and things that wouldn't fit into his first bedroom. **

**It only took Harry one trip upstairs to move everything he owned from the cupboard to this room. He sat down on the bed and stared around him. Nearly everything in here was broken. The month-old video camera was lying on top of a small, working tank Dudley had once driven over the next door neighbor's dog; in the corner was Dudley's first-ever television set, which he'd put his foot through when his favorite program had been canceled; **

''Still not as bad as Harry's," Neville joked trying to lighten Ginny's mood. She was still furious, but he thought he saw her mouth twitch in a smile.

**there was a large birdcage, which had once held a parrot that Dudley had swapped at school for a real air rifle, which was up on a shelf with the end all bent because Dudley had sat on it. **

"Poor rifle. What did it ever do to you?" Lee said in mock accusation to Dudley who looked up in surprise.

**Other shelves were full of books. They were the only things in the room that looked as though they'd never been touched. From downstairs came the sound of Dudley bawling at his mother, "I don't want him in there… I need that room… make him get out…" **

**Harry sighed and stretched out on the bed. Yesterday he'd have given anything to be up here. Today he'd rather be back in his cupboard with that letter than up here without it. **

**Next morning at breakfast, everyone was rather quiet. Dudley was in shock. He'd screamed, whacked his father with his Smelting stick, been sick on purpose, kicked his mother, and thrown his tortoise through the greenhouse roof, and he still didn't have his room back. **

"If any of my brothers had done that they wouldn't have been able to sit for a month," Ginny said in astonishment.

"Thank you, Ginny. I could've gone the rest of my life without knowing that Fred and George couldn't sit because their bums were sore," Lee said, wincing dramatically..

**Harry was thinking about this time yesterday and bitterly wishing he'd opened the letter in the hall. Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia kept looking at each other darkly. When the mail arrived, Uncle Vernon, who seemed to be trying to be nice to Harry, made Dudley go and get it.**

**They heard him banging things with his Smelting stick all the way down the hall. Then he shouted, "There's another one! 'Mr. H. Potter, The Smallest Bedroom, 4 Privet Drive —'" **

**With a strangled cry, Uncle Vernon leapt from his seat and ran down the hall, Harry right behind him. Uncle Vernon had to wrestle Dudley to the ground to get the letter from him, which was made difficult by the fact that Harry had grabbed Uncle Vernon around the neck from behind. After a minute of confused fighting, in which everyone got hit a lot by the Smelting stick, Uncle Vernon straightened up, gasping for breath, with Harry's letter clutched in his hand. **

"Damn," Ginny muttered.

Gordon looked in surprise. "Who would've thought that Ginger cussed so much? I guess she not as innocent as she looks."

"Please," Ginny snorted. "I've kicked ass more times than you've stuffed your face."

Lee, Neville, Piers, Dudley, and Malcolm all laughed while Gordon's face turned red.

**"Go to your cupboard — I mean, your bedroom," he wheezed at Harry. "Dudley — go — just go." **

**Harry walked round and round his new room. Someone knew he had moved out of his cupboard and they seemed to know he hadn't received his first letter. Surely that meant they'd try again? And this time he'd make sure they didn't fail. He had a plan. **

"Oh no," Neville muttered and Dudley looked at him questioningly. What was so wrong with his cousin's plans?

**The repaired alarm clock rang at six o'clock the next morning. Harry turned it off quickly and dressed silently. He mustn't wake the Dursleys. He stole downstairs without turning on any of the lights. He was going to wait for the postman on the corner of Privet Drive and get the letters for number four first. His heart hammered as he crept across the dark hall toward the front door — **

**"AAAAARRRGH!" **

**Harry leapt into the air; he'd trodden on something big and squashy on the doormat — something alive! Lights clicked on upstairs and to his horror Harry realized that the big, squashy something had been his uncle's face.**

"So that's what happened. I had wondered why he hollered," Dudley mused.

"Why didn't you just ask in the morning?" Ginny quirked an eyebrow.

"I was still pouting," Dudley chuckled nervously.

**Uncle Vernon had been lying at the foot of the front door in a sleeping bag, clearly making sure that Harry didn't do exactly what he'd been trying to do. He shouted at Harry for about half an hour and then told him to go and make a cup of tea. Harry shuffled miserably off into the kitchen and by the time he got back, the mail had arrived, right into Uncle Vernon's lap. Harry could see three letters addressed in green ink. **

**"I want —" he began, but Uncle Vernon was tearing the letters into pieces before his eyes.**

**Uncle Vernon didn't go to work that day. He stayed at home and nailed up the mail slot. **

**"See," he explained to Aunt Petunia through a mouthful of nails, "if they can't deliver them they'll just give up." **

"I still think that Harry's logic is better." Lee grinned.

**"I'm not sure that'll work, Vernon." **

**"Oh, these people's minds work in strange ways, Petunia, they're not like you and me," said Uncle Vernon, trying to knock in a nail with the piece of fruitcake Aunt Petunia had just brought him. **

"Thank God for that," Ginny said scorchingly.

**On Friday, no less than twelve letters arrived for Harry. As they couldn't go through the mail slot they had been pushed under the door, slotted through the sides, and a few even forced through the small window in the downstairs bathroom. Uncle Vernon stayed at home again. After burning all the letters,**

"Now that was uncalled for," Neville said crossing his arms.

**he got out a hammer and nails and boarded up the cracks around the front and back doors so no one could go out. He hummed "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" as he worked, and jumped at small noises. **

"No offense, Dud, but I think your dad needs to pay a visit to the Happy House," Malcolm snorted.

**On Saturday, things began to get out of hand. Twenty-four letters to Harry found their way into the house, rolled up and hidden inside each of the two dozen eggs that their very confused milkman had handed Aunt Petunia through the living room window. **

**While Uncle Vernon made furious telephone calls to the post office and the dairy trying to find someone to complain to, Aunt Petunia shredded the letters in her food processor. **

"Oh come on!" Ginny groaned.

**"Who on earth wants to talk to you this badly?" Dudley asked Harry in amazement. **

**On Sunday morning, Uncle Vernon sat down at the breakfast table looking tired and rather ill, but happy. **

**"No post on Sundays," he reminded them cheerfully as he spread marmalade on his newspapers,**

"Yeah, I think he's a bit mad," Dudley chuckled.

**"no damn letters today —" **

**Something came whizzing down the kitchen chimney as he spoke and caught him sharply on the back of the head. Next moment, thirty or forty letters came pelting out of the fireplace like bullets. The Dursleys ducked, but Harry leapt into the air trying to catch one — **

**"Out! OUT!" **

**Uncle Vernon seized Harry around the waist and threw him into the hall. **

**When Aunt Petunia and Dudley had run out with their arms over their faces, Uncle Vernon slammed the door shut. They could hear the letters still streaming into the room, bouncing off the walls and floor. **

**"That does it," said Uncle Vernon, trying to speak calmly but pulling great tufts out of his mustache at the same time.**

**"I want you all back here in five minutes ready to leave. We're going away. Just pack some clothes. No arguments!" **

"So, how well did Harry do with the no arguments rule?" Ginny asked wryly.

"He didn't argue, but he was slamming a lot of things shut in his room," Dudley answered.

**He looked so dangerous with half his mustache missing that no one dared argue. **

"He's more than a bit mad," Piers laughed.

"Amen to that," Lee agreed.

**Ten minutes later they had wrenched their way through the boarded-up doors and were in the car, speeding toward the highway. Dudley was sniffling in the back seat; his father had hit him round the head for holding them up while he tried to pack his television, VCR, and computer in his sports bag. **

**They drove. And they drove. Even Aunt Petunia didn't dare ask where they were going. Every now and then Uncle Vernon would take a sharp turn and drive in the opposite direction for a while. **

**"Shake 'em off… shake 'em off," he would mutter whenever he did this. **

**They didn't stop to eat or drink all day. By nightfall Dudley was howling. He'd never had such a bad day in his life. He was hungry, he'd missed five television programs he'd wanted to see, and he'd never gone so long without blowing up an alien on his computer. **

"That doesn't even come close to Harry's bad days," Ginny said bitingly. Just when she started to get along better with Dudley, the boy does something to mess it up.

**Uncle Vernon stopped at last outside a gloomy-looking hotel on the outskirts of a big city. Dudley and Harry shared a room with twin beds and damp, musty sheets. Dudley snored but Harry stayed awake, sitting on the windowsill, staring down at the lights of passing cars and wondering…**

**They ate stale cornflakes and cold tinned tomatoes on toast for breakfast the next day. They had just finished when the owner of the hotel came over to their table. **

**"'Scuse me, but is one of you Mr. H. Potter? Only I got about an 'undred of these at the front desk." **

**She held up a letter so they could read the green ink address: **

_**Mr. H. Potter**_

_**Room 17**_

_**Railview Hotel**_

_**Cokeworth**_

**Harry made a grab for the letter but Uncle Vernon knocked his hand out of the way. The woman stared. **

**"I'll take them," said Uncle Vernon, standing up quickly and following her from the dining room. **

**"Wouldn't it be better just to go home, dear?" Aunt Petunia suggested timidly, hours later, but Uncle Vernon didn't seem to hear her.**

**Exactly what he was looking for, none of them knew. He drove them into the middle of a forest, got out, looked around, shook his head, got back in the car, and off they went again. The same thing happened in the middle of a plowed field, halfway across a suspension bridge, and at the top of a multilevel parking garage. **

**"Daddy's gone mad, hasn't he?" Dudley asked Aunt Petunia dully late that afternoon.**

"At least you noticed that your dad finally cracked," Someone mumbled.

**Uncle Vernon had parked at the coast, locked them all inside the car, and disappeared. It started to rain. Great drops beat on the roof of the car. Dudley snivelled. **

**"It's Monday," he told his mother. "The Great Humberto's on tonight. I want to stay somewhere with a television." **

**Monday. This reminded Harry of something. If it was Monday — and you could usually count on Dudley to know the days the week, because of television — then tomorrow, Tuesday, was Harry's eleventh birthday. **

**Of course, his birthdays were never exactly fun — last year, the Dursleys had given him a coat hanger and a pair of Uncle Vernon's old socks.**

"Mum definitely changed that," Ginny laughed.

**Still, you weren't eleven every day. **

"I beg to differ; you are eleven the other 364 days of the year." Lee said pompously.

Ginny raised an eyebrow. "What about leap year?"

That shut him up.

**Uncle Vernon was back and he was smiling. He was also carrying a long, thin package and didn't answer Aunt Petunia when she asked what he'd bought.**

**"Found the perfect place!" he said. "Come on! Everyone out!" **

**It was very cold outside the car. Uncle Vernon was pointing at what looked like a large rock way out at sea. Perched on top of the rock was the most miserable little shack you could imagine. One thing was certain; there was no television in there. **

**"Storm forecast for tonight!" said Uncle Vernon gleefully, clapping his hands together. "And this gentleman's kindly agreed to lend us his boat!" **

**A toothless old man came ambling up to them, pointing, with a rather wicked grin, at an old rowboat bobbing in the iron-gray water below them. **

**"I've already got us some rations," said Uncle Vernon, "so all aboard!" **

**It was freezing in the boat. Icy sea spray and rain crept down their necks and a chilly wind whipped their faces. **

"I'm surprised that we didn't get sick," Dudley said thoughtfully.

"Well, if your family were wizards, then you could've taken some Pepper-Up potion and been toasty warm in two seconds flat," Lee pointed out.

This made Dudley wonder. Why did his mum and dad hate magic so much?

**After what seemed like hours they reached the rock, where Uncle Vernon, slipping and sliding, led the way to the broken-down house. **

**The inside was horrible; it smelled strongly of seaweed, the wind whistled through the gaps in the wooden walls, and the fireplace was damp and empty. There were only two rooms. Uncle Vernon's rations turned out to be a bag of chips each and four bananas. He tried to start a fire but the empty chip bags just smoked and shriveled up. **

**"Could do with some of those letters now, eh?" he said cheerfully. **

"Prat," Ginny muttered.

**He was in a very good mood. Obviously he thought nobody stood a chance of reaching them here in a storm to deliver mail. Harry privately agreed, though the thought didn't cheer him up at all. **

"I've been wondering when his pessimism would show up again. Though this time he has a reason to be," Lee said.

**As night fell, the promised storm blew up around them. Spray from the high waves splattered the walls of the hut and a fierce wind rattled the filthy windows. Aunt Petunia found a few moldy blankets in the second room and made up a bed for Dudley on the moth-eaten sofa. She and Uncle Vernon went off to the lumpy bed next door, and Harry was left to find the softest bit of floor he could and to curl up under the thinnest, most ragged blanket. **

Ginny's hand twitched and she had to remind herself that it probably wouldn't be good if she gave a muggle another bloody nose.

**The storm raged more and more ferociously as the night went on. Harry couldn't sleep. He shivered and turned over, trying to get comfortable, his stomach rumbling with hunger. **

**Dudley's snores were drowned by the low rolls of thunder that started near midnight. The lighted dial of Dudley's watch, which was dangling over the edge of the sofa on his fat wrist, told Harry he'd be eleven in ten minutes' time. He lay and watched his birthday tick nearer, wondering if the Dursleys would remember at all, wondering where the letter writer was now. **

**Five minutes to go. Harry heard something creak outside. He hoped the roof wasn't going to fall in, although he might be warmer if it did. **

"Pessimistic!" Lee coughed.

**Four minutes to go. Maybe the house in Privet Drive would be so full of letters when they got back that he'd be able to steal one somehow. **

**Three minutes to go. Was that the sea, slapping hard on the rock like that? And (two minutes to go) what was that funny crunching noise? Was the rock crumbling into the sea? **

**One minute to go and he'd be eleven. Thirty seconds… twenty… ten… nine — maybe he'd wake Dudley up, just to annoy him**

"If only he would've came with us when we pulled pranks. Think of all the peaceful days that could have been ruined!" Lee said in faux tragedy.

— **three… two… one… **

**BOOM. **

**The whole shack shivered and Harry sat bolt upright, staring at the door. Someone was outside, knocking to come in. **

"DUN, DUN, DUN!" Lee shouted and Ginny hit him upside the head.

"You know you deserved that," she said with a pointed look and Lee sighed in exasperation.

Dudley chuckled. Why can't my friends and I just joke around like that? Anything would be better than what they did now.

Gordon groaned in his head. This book hadn't given him anything he could use against Potter to tease him or to steal his girlfriend, Ginger. He liked it when they resisted him. But they always came to him in the end.

"So let's move on to the next chapter shall we?" Neville said and muttered the charm again.

The book flipped to the next page and read out, **"The Keeper of Keys."**


	5. Keeper of the Keys

**Hey everyone sorry about the long wait. Well here's the next chapter enjoy!**

**Shout out to my two beta's who helped edit this chapter. Yes this chapter was written by me. so enjoy!**

* * *

**Keeper of the Keys**

**BOOM. They knocked again. Dudley jerked awake. "Where's the cannon?" he said stupidly.**

"What else is new?" Neville mumbled to Lee who snorted and smirked. They really didn't like their friend's cousin or his stupid friends. Based on what they had seen, he seen, he was getting a bad vibe.

**There was a crash behind them and Uncle Vernon came skidding into the room. He was holding a rifle in his hands - now they knew what had been in the long, thin package he had brought with them.**

"What's a rifle?" Neville asked, slowly.

"You don't know what a rifle is?" Malcolm snorted.

"We don't have a need for them. Besides, if you shoot a man, you can go to jail. But with our wands, I can cast a spell that would have you paralyzed." Ginny said, smiling at the thought.

"Um, she is kidding, right?" Malcolm said nervously.

"You wish'" Lee smirked.

"I know I do."

**There was a pause. Then -**

**SMASH!**

**The door was hit with such force that it swung clean off its hinges and with a deafening crash landed flat on the floor.**

**A giant of a man was standing in the doorway. His face was almost completely hidden by a long, shaggy mane of hair and a wild, tangled beard, but you could make out his eyes, glinting like black beetles under all the hair.**

**The giant squeezed his way into the hut, stooping so that his head just brushed the ceiling. He bent down, picked up the door, and fitted it easily back into its frame. The noise of the storm outside dropped a little. He turned to look at them all.**

**"Couldn't make us a cup o' tea, could yeh? It's not been an easy journey..."**

"I love that Hagrid just bursts in, Knicks the door down, then asks for tea like nothing happened." Lee laughed.

**He strode over to the sofa where Dudley sat frozen with fear.**

**"Budge up, yeh great lump," said the stranger.**

**Dudley squeaked and ran to hide behind his mother, who was crouching, terrified, behind Uncle Vernon.**

**"An' here's Harry!" said the giant.**

**Harry looked up into the fierce, wild, shadowy face and saw that the beetle eyes were crinkled in a smile.**

"Looks are the most deceiving thing in the world." Lee said.

"Especially in the wizarding world." Neville muttered.

**"Las' time I saw you, you was only a baby," said the giant. "Yeh look a lot like yet dad, but yeh've got yet mom's eyes."**

"Well isn't that the last time anyone is gonna say that." Lee said sarcastically.

Ginny turned her head to him and said, " Lee do me a favor and shut up."

**Uncle Vernon made a funny rasping noise.**

**"I demand that you leave at once, sir!" he said. "You are breaking and entering!"**

**"Ah, shut up, Dursley, yeh great prune," said the giant; he reached over the back of the sofa, jerked the gun out of Uncle Vernon's hands, bent it into a knot as easily as if it had been made of rubber, and threw it into a corner of the room.**

"Go, Hagrid!" Lee cheered.

**Uncle Vernon made another funny noise, like a mouse being trodden on.**

**"Anyway - Harry," said the giant, turning his back on the Dursleys, "a very happy birthday to yeh. Got summat fer yeh here - I mighta sat on it at some point, but it'll taste all right."**

**From an inside pocket of his black overcoat he pulled a slightly squashed box. Harry opened it with trembling fingers. Inside was a large, sticky chocolate cake with Happy Birthday Harry written on it in green icing.**

"Poor, Harry. He has to find out about Hagrid's cooking then hard way." Neville winced.

**Harry looked up at the giant. He meant to say thank you, but the words got lost on the way to his mouth, and what he said instead was, "Who are you?"**

**The giant chuckled.**

**"True, I haven't introduced meself. Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts."**

**He held out an enormous hand and shook Harry's whole arm.**

"Scrawny wimp." Gordon muttered.

**"What about that tea then, eh?" he said, rubbing his hands together. "I'd not say no ter summat stronger if yeh've got it, mind."**

"Hagrid and his alcohol." Neville muttered, smiling despite himself.

**His eyes fell on the empty grate with the shriveled chip bags in it and he snorted. He bent down over the fireplace; they couldn't see what he was doing but when he drew back a second later, there was a roaring fire there. It filled the whole damp hut with flickering light and Harry felt the warmth wash over him as though he'd sunk into a hot bath.**

**The giant sat back down on the sofa, which sagged under his weight, and began taking all sorts of things out of the pockets of his coat: a copper kettle, a squashy package of sausages, a poker, a teapot, several chipped mugs, and a bottle of some amber liquid that he took a swig from before starting to make tea. Soon the hut was full of the sound and smell of sizzling sausage. Nobody said a thing while the giant was working, but as he slid the first six fat, juicy, slightly burnt sausages from the poker, Dudley fidgeted a little. Uncle Vernon said sharply, "Don't touch anything he gives you, Dudley."**

**The giant chuckled darkly.**

**"Yet great puddin' of a son don' need fattenin' anymore, Dursley, don' worry."**

"Hagrid is officially my hero." Neville laughed. Ginny nodded in agreement.

**He passed the sausages to Harry, who was so hungry he had never tasted anything so wonderful, but he still couldn't take his eyes off the giant. Finally, as nobody seemed about to explain anything, he said, "I'm sorry, but I still don't really know who you are."**

**The giant took a gulp of tea and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.**

**"Call me Hagrid," he said, "everyone does. An' like I told yeh, I'm Keeper of Keys at Hogwarts - yeh'll know all about Hogwarts, o' course.**

**"Er - no," said Harry.**

**Hagrid looked shocked.**

**"Sorry," Harry said quickly.**

**"Sorry?" barked Hagrid, turning to stare at the Dursley's, who shrank back into the shadows. "It' s them as should be sorry! I knew yeh weren't gettin' yer letters but I never thought yeh wouldn't even know abou' Hogwarts, fer cryin' out loud! Did yeh never wonder where yet parents learned it all?"**

**"All what?" asked Harry.**

"Uh oh, Hagrid's going to freak." Ginny said.

**"ALL WHAT?" Hagrid thundered. "Now wait jus' one second!"**

**He had leapt to his feet. In his anger he seemed to fill the whole hut. The Dursleys were cowering against the wall.**

**"Do you mean ter tell me," he growled at the Dursleys, "that this boy - this boy! - knows nothin' abou' - about ANYTHING?"**

**Harry thought this was going a bit far. He had been to school, after all, and his marks weren't bad.**

**"I know some things," he said. "I can, you know, do math and stuff." But Hagrid simply waved his hand and said,**

**"About our world, I mean. Your world. My world. Yer parents' world."**

**"What world?"**

**Hagrid looked as if he was about to explode.**

"Give 'em hell, Hagrid!" Lee cheered.

**"DURSLEY!" he boomed.**

**Uncle Vernon, who had gone very pale, whispered something that sounded like "Mimblewimble." Hagrid stared wildly at Harry.**

**"But yeh must know about yet mom and dad," he said. "I mean, they're famous. You're famous."**

**"What? My - my mom and dad weren't famous, were they?"**

"Yes, they were and for reasons they shouldn't be." Ginny said bitterly.

**"Yeh don' know... yeh don' know..." Hagrid ran his fingers through his hair, fixing Harry with a bewildered stare.**

**"Yeh don' know what yeh are?" he said finally.**

**Uncle Vernon suddenly found his voice.**

"Why couldn't he have just shut up already," Lee groaned.

**"Stop!" he commanded. "Stop right there, sit! I forbid you to tell the boy anything!"**

"Dursley's got guts, I'll give him that." Lee noted ruefully.

**A braver man than Vernon Dursley would have quailed under the furious look Hagrid now gave him; when Hagrid spoke, his every syllable trembled with rage.**

**"You never told him? Never told him what was in the letter Dumbledore left fer him? I was there! I saw Dumbledore leave it, Dursley! An' you've kept it from him all these years?"**

**"Kept what from me?" said Harry eagerly.**

**"STOP! I FORBID YOU!" yelled Uncle Vernon in panic.**

**Aunt Petunia gave a gasp of horror.**

**"Ah, go boil yet heads, both of yeh," said Hagrid. "Harry - yet a wizard."**

"Way to be blunt, Hagrid."Lee sniggered.

"You did practically the same thing," Dudley pointed out.

"Touché."

**There was silence inside the hut. Only the sea and the whistling wind could be heard.**

**"- a what?" gasped Harry.**

**"A wizard, o' course," said Hagrid, sitting back down on the sofa, which groaned and sank even lower, "an' a thumpin' good'un, I'd say, once yeh've been trained up a bit. With a mum an' dad like yours, what else would yeh be? An' I reckon it's abou' time yeh read yer letter."**

"I doubt Potter is going to be a good wizard." Gordon snorted.

"And I doubted I could find anyone more annoying then Malfoy, but here we are," Ginny smirked.

Lee and Neville roared with laughter.

**Harry stretched out his hand at last to take the yellowish envelope, addressed in emerald green to Mr. H. Potter, The Floor, Hut-on-the-Rock, The Sea. He pulled out the letter and read:**

**HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY**

**Headmaster: ALBUS DUMBLEDORE**

**(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)**

**Dear Mr. Potter,**

**We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.**

**Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31. Yours sincerely,**

_**Minerva McGonagall,**_

**Deputy Headmistress**

**Questions exploded inside Harry's head like fireworks and he couldn't decide which to ask first. After a few minutes he stammered, "What does it mean, they await my owl?"**

"I still can't believe that's the first thing he asked." Dudley shook his head in amazement of his cousin.

**"Gallopin' Gorgons, that reminds me," said Hagrid, clapping a hand to his forehead with enough force to knock over a cart horse, and from yet another pocket inside his overcoat he pulled an owl - a real, live, rather ruffled-looking owl - a long quill, and a roll of parchment. With his tongue between his teeth he scribbled a note that Harry could read upside down:**

"I can't even read it the right side up." Neville complained.

"Harry seems to be the only one that does."

**Dear Professor Dumbledore,**

**Given Harry his letter. Taking him to buy his things tomorrow. Weather's horrible. Hope you're Well.**

**Hagrid**

**Hagrid rolled up the note, gave it to the owl, which clamped it in its beak, went to the door, and threw the owl out into the storm. Then he came back and sat down as though this was as normal as talking on the telephone.**

"Hey, Ginger, speaking of telephones, why don't you give me your digits, and if you're lucky, I might just go out on a date with you." Gordon said arrogantly.

Lee and Neville looked at him for a second then bursted out laughing.

"Like I would ever go out with an illiterate ignoramus like you." Ginny said scathingly.

Gordon, blinked, Nintendo knowing what she just called him.

**Harry realized his mouth was open and closed it quickly.**

**"Where was I?" said Hagrid, but at that moment, Uncle Vernon, still ashen-faced but looking very angry, moved into the firelight.**

**"He's not going," he said.**

**Hagrid grunted.**

**"I'd like ter see a great Muggle like you stop him," he said.**

**"A what?" said Harry, interested.**

**"A Muggle," said Hagrid, "it's what we call nonmagic folk like thern. An' it's your bad luck you grew up in a family o' the biggest Muggles I ever laid eyes on."**

"Literally." Ginny muttered, and Lee snorted.

**"We swore when we took him in we'd put a stop to that rubbish," said Uncle Vernon, "swore we'd stamp it out of him! Wizard indeed!"**

Dudley saw Ginny's hand twitch to her pocket. He gulped. It was only going to get worse year by year.

**"You knew?" said Harry. "You knew I'm a - a wizard?"**

**"Knew!" shrieked Aunt Petunia suddenly. "Knew! Of course we knew! How could you not be, my dratted sister being what she was? Oh, she got a letter just like that and disappeared off to that-that school-and came home every vacation with her pockets full of frog spawn, turning teacups into rats. I was the only one who saw her for what she was - a freak! But for my mother and father, oh no, it was Lily this and Lily that, they were proud of having a witch in the family!"**

**She stopped to draw a deep breath and then went ranting on. It seemed she had been wanting to say all this for years.**

Piers let out a low whistle.

**"Then she met that Potter at school and they left and got married and had you, and of course I knew you'd be just the same, just as strange, just as - as - abnormal - and then, if you please, she went and got herself blown up and we got landed with you!"**

Ginny's hand twitched for her wand. "That," she said through gritted teeth. "Was the flimsiest excuse for treating a human being the way she did."

**Harry had gone very white. As soon as he found his voice he said, "Blown up? You told me they died in a car crash!"**

**"CAR CRASH!" roared Hagrid, jumping up so angrily that the Dursleys scuttled back to their corner. "How could a car crash kill Lily an' James Potter? It's an outrage! A scandal! Harry Potter not knowin' his own story when every kid in our world knows his name!"**

**"But why? What happened?" Harry asked urgently.**

**The anger faded from Hagrid's face. He looked suddenly anxious.**

"Can't say I blame him." Lee said seriously.

**"I never expected this," he said, in a low, worried voice. "I had no idea, when Dumbledore told me there might be trouble gettin' hold of yeh, how much yeh didn't know. Ah, Harry, I don' know if I'm the right person ter tell yeh - but someone gotta - yeh can't go off ter Hogwarts not knowin'."**

"He has a point," said Ginny, looking at the ground. "I'm glad Hagrid had the courage to tell him because I don't think a lot of people could have."

**He threw a dirty look at the Dursleys.**

**"Well, it's best yeh know as much as I can tell yeh - mind, I can't tell yeh everythin', it's a great myst'ry, parts of it..."**

**He sat down, stared into the fire for a few seconds, and then said, "It begins, I suppose, with - with a person called - but it's incredible yeh don't know his name, everyone in our world knows -"**

**"Who? "**

**"Well - I don' like sayin' the name if I can help it. No one does."**

"Hey, Lee bet you Harry can get Hagrid to say the name." Neville grinned.

"Four galleons." retorted Lee.

"Deal," The two boys shook hands.

**"Why not?"**

**"Gulpin' gargoyles, Harry, people are still scared. Blimey, this is difficult. See, there was this wizard who went... bad. As bad as you could go. Worse. Worse than worse. His name was..."**

**Hagrid gulped, but no words came out.**

**"Could you write it down?" Harry suggested.**

**"Nah -can't spell it. All right - Voldemort. "**

"Pay up, Lee." Neville said, holding out his hand and grinning.

Lee sighed, grumbled and handed over the money.

**Hagrid shuddered. "Don' make me say it again. Anyway, this - this wizard, about twenty years ago now, started lookin' fer followers. Got 'em, too - some were afraid, some just wanted a bit o' his power, 'cause he was gettin' himself power, all right. Dark days, Harry. Didn't know who ter trust, didn't dare get friendly with strange wizards or witches... terrible things happened. He was takin' over. 'Course, some stood up to him - an' he killed 'em. Horribly. One o' the only safe places left was Hogwarts. Reckon Dumbledore's the only one You-Know-Who was afraid of. Didn't dare try takin' the school, not jus' then, anyway.**

**"Now, yer mum an' dad were as good a witch an' wizard as I ever knew. Head boy an' girl at Hogwarts in their day!**

"Is that a big deal at Hogwarts?" Dudley asked curiously.

"For some people, it is," Ginny said. "And for others, not do much," she said, thinking of Ron.

**Suppose the myst'ry is why You-Know-Who never tried to get 'em on his side before... probably knew they were too close ter Dumbledore ter want anythin' ter do with the Dark Side.**

**"Maybe he thought he could persuade 'em... maybe he just wanted 'em outta the way. All anyone knows is, he turned up in the village where you was all living, on Halloween ten years ago. You was just a year old. He came ter yer house an' - an' -"**

**Hagrid suddenly pulled out a very dirty, spotted handkerchief and blew his nose with a sound like a foghorn.**

**"Sorry," he said. "But it's that sad - knew yer mum an' dad, an' nicer people yeh couldn't find - anyway..."**

**"You-Know-Who killed 'em. An' then - an' this is the real myst'ry of the thing - he tried to kill you, too. Wanted ter make a clean job of it, I suppose, or maybe he just liked killin' by then. But he couldn't do it. Never wondered how you got that mark on yer forehead? That was no ordinary cut. That's what yeh get when a Powerful, evil curse touches yeh - took care of yer mum an' dad an' yer house, even - but it didn't work on you, an' that's why yer famous, Harry. No one ever lived after he decided ter kill 'em, no one except you, an' he'd killed some o' the best witches an' wizards of the age - the McKinnons, the Bones, the Prewetts - an' you was only a baby, an' you lived."**

"Amazing," Dudley breathed. "He really did that?"

"That and so much more." Ginny smiled.

**Something very painful was going on in Harry's mind. As Hagrid's story came to a close, he saw again the blinding flash of green light, more clearly than he had ever remembered it before - and he remembered something else, for the first time in his life: a high, cold, cruel laugh.**

"Bloody hell," Lee gulped. "Harry can remember that?"

**Hagrid was watching him sadly.**

**"Took yeh from the ruined house myself, on Dumbledore's orders. Brought yeh ter this lot..."**

**"Load of old tosh," said Uncle Vernon. Harry jumped; he had almost forgotten that the Dursleys were there. Uncle Vernon certainly seemed to have got back his courage. He was glaring at Hagrid and his fists were clenched.**

"Oh, great he found his voice." Lee said groaning. Ginny laughed.

**"Now, you listen here, boy," he snarled, "I accept there's something strange about you, probably nothing a good beating wouldn't have cured - and as for all this about your parents, well, they were weirdos, no denying it, and the world's better off without them in my opinion - asked for all they got, getting mixed up with these wizarding types - just what I expected, always knew they'd come to a sticky end -"**

"That no good son of a bitch!" Ginny shrieked, her face red with rage.

Her two friends stood up and pulled her down back into her seat. She clenched her fists, fuming.

**But at that moment, Hagrid leapt from the sofa and drew a battered pink umbrella from inside his coat. Pointing this at Uncle Vernon like a sword, he said, "I'm warning you, Dursley -I'm warning you - one more word... "**

**In danger of being speared on the end of an umbrella by a bearded giant, Uncle Vernon's courage failed again; he flattened himself against the wall and fell silent.**

"Coward." Ginny muttered, still angry.

**"That's better," said Hagrid, breathing heavily and sitting back down on the sofa, which this time sagged right down to the floor.**

**Harry, meanwhile, still had questions to ask, hundreds of them.**

**"But what happened to Vol-, sorry - I mean, You-Know-Who?"**

"Harry didn't say the name?" Neville said in shock and vague confusion.

"According to Ron, that didn't last long." Ginny assured him. She giggled at his odd facial expression.

**"Good question, Harry. Disappeared. Vanished. Same night he tried ter kill you. Makes yeh even more famous. That's the biggest myst'ry, see... he was gettin' more an' more powerful - why'd he go?**

**"Some say he died. Codswallop, in my opinion. Dunno if he had enough human left in him to die. Some say he's still out there, bidin' his time, like, but I don' believe it. People who was on his side came back ter ours. Some of 'em came outta kinda trances. Don~ reckon they could've done if he was comin' back.**

**"Most of us reckon he's still out there somewhere but lost his powers. Too weak to carry on. 'Cause somethin' about you finished him, Harry. There was somethin' goin' on that night he hadn't counted on - I dunno what it was, no one does - but somethin' about you stumped him, all right."**

"Do you think Hagrid has Seer blood?" Lee asked.

"It sounds like it, doesn't it?" Neville chuckled.

**Hagrid looked at Harry with warmth and respect blazing in his eyes, but Harry, instead of feeling pleased and proud, felt quite sure there had been a horrible mistake. A wizard? Him? How could he possibly be? He'd spent his life being clouted by Dudley, and bullied by Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon; if he was really a wizard, why hadn't they been turned into warty toads every time they'd tried to lock him in his cupboard? If he'd once defeated the greatest sorcerer in the world, how come Dudley had always been able to kick him around like a football?**

"See, even Potter knows he's a worthless runt." Piers said, but quickly shut up at the glares he was getting from the three wizards.

**"Hagrid," he said quietly, "I think you must have made a mistake. I don't think I can be a wizard."**

**To his surprise, Hagrid chuckled.**

**"Not a wizard, eh? Never made things happen when you was scared or angry?"**

**Harry looked into the fire. Now he came to think about it... every odd thing that had ever made his aunt and uncle furious with him had happened when he, Harry, had been upset or angry... chased by Dudley's gang, he had somehow found himself out of their reach... dreading going to school with that ridiculous haircut, he'd managed to make it grow back... and the very last time Dudley had hit him, hadn't he got his revenge, without even realizing he was doing it? Hadn't he set a boa constrictor on him?**

"Yes, Harry, you did, and it was bloody brilliant!" Lee grinned.

**Harry looked back at Hagrid, smiling, and saw that Hagrid was positively beaming at him.**

**"See?" said Hagrid. "Harry Potter, not a wizard - you wait, you'll be right famous at Hogwarts."**

**But Uncle Vernon wasn't going to give in without a fight.**

Ginny rolled her eyes at this.

**"Haven't I told you he's not going?" he hissed. "He's going to Stonewall High and he'll be grateful for it. I've read those letters and he needs all sorts of rubbish - spell books and wands and -"**

**"If he wants ter go, a great Muggle like you won't stop him," growled Hagrid. "Stop Lily an' James Potter' s son goin' ter Hogwarts! Yer mad. His name's been down ever since he was born. He's off ter the finest school of witchcraft and wizardry in the world. Seven years there and he won't know himself. He'll be with youngsters of his own sort, fer a change, an' he'll be under the greatest headmaster Hogwarts ever had Albus Dumbled-"**

**"I AM NOT PAYING FOR SOME CRACKPOT OLD FOOL TO TEACH HIM MAGIC TRICKS!" yelled Uncle Vernon.**

"Now he's in for it." Neville said, rubbing his hands together in anticipation.

**But he had finally gone too far. Hagrid seized his umbrella and whirled it over his head, "NEVER," he thundered, "- INSULT- ALBUS- DUMBLEDORE- IN- FRONT- OF- ME!"**

**He brought the umbrella swishing down through the air to point at Dudley - there was a flash of violet light, a sound like a firecracker, a sharp squeal, and the next second, Dudley was dancing on the spot with his hands clasped over his fat bottom, howling in pain. When he turned his back on them, Harry saw a curly pig's tail poking through a hole in his trousers.**

Everyone laughed, but Dudley. He turned quite red and tried not to shudder at the memory

**Uncle Vernon roared. Pulling Aunt Petunia and Dudley into the other room, he cast one last terrified look at Hagrid and slammed the door behind them.**

**Hagrid looked down at his umbrella and stroked his beard.**

**"Shouldn'ta lost me temper," he said ruefully, "but it didn't work anyway. Meant ter turn him into a pig, but I suppose he was so much like a pig anyway there wasn't much left ter do."**

Neville and Lee were rolling on the floor, clutching their stomachs.

**He cast a sideways look at Harry under his bushy eyebrows.**

**"Be grateful if yeh didn't mention that ter anyone at Hogwarts," he said. "I'm - er - not supposed ter do magic, strictly speakin'. I was allowed ter do a bit ter follow yeh an' get yer letters to yeh an' stuff - one o' the reasons I was so keen ter take on the job**

**"Why aren't you supposed to do magic?" asked Harry.**

**"Oh, well - I was at Hogwarts meself but I - er - got expelled, ter tell yeh the truth. In me third year. They snapped me wand in half an' everything. But Dumbledore let me stay on as gamekeeper. Great man, Dumbledore."**

**"Why were you expelled?"**

"Nice try, Harry, Hagrid never tells anyone." Lee said.

**"It's gettin' late and we've got lots ter do tomorrow," said Hagrid loudly. "Gotta get up ter town, get all yer books an' that."**

**He took off his thick black coat and threw it to Harry.**

**"You can kip under that," he said. "Don' mind if it wriggles a bit, I think I still got a couple o' dormice in one o' the pockets."**

"That was an uneventful chapter, Piers muttered.

**'Diagon Alley'read the book**

* * *

**Well what do you think?**

**Hate it?**

**love it?**

**Review and let me know. **

**Oh and before I go a moment of silence for the 26 people that lost their lives in Newtown, Connecticut. **


	6. Diagon Alley

**Hey Everyone! So sorry about the long wait! I kind of got lazy due to the holidays so. Well enjoys**

* * *

**Diagon Alley**

**Harry woke early the next morning. Although he could tell it was daylight, he kept his eyes shut tight.**

**"It was a dream, he told himself firmly. "I dreamed a giant called Hagrid came to tell me I was going to a school for wizards. When I open my eyes I'll be at home in my cupboard."**

"He's always such pessimist." Ginny sighed

**There was suddenly a loud tapping noise.**

**And there's Aunt Petunia knocking on the door, Harry thought, his heart sinking. But he still didn't open his eyes. It had been such a good dream.**

"He really can't believe something good could happen to him can he?" Neville said sadly

"Well based on his childhood can you blame him?" Ginny reasoned

"I guess not." He sighed sending a glare in Dudley's direction

**Tap. Tap. Tap.**

**"All right," Harry mumbled, "I'm getting up."**

**He sat up and Hagrid's heavy coat fell off him. The hut was full of sunlight, the storm was over, Hagrid himself was asleep on the collapsed sofa, and there was an owl rapping its claw on the window, a newspaper held in its beak.**

"That must be The Daily Prophet being delivered to Hagrid." Neville said

"Those owls are so annoying." Lee moaned

"Why?" Dudley asked

"Because if you don't pay them right away the peck you until you do." Lee explained

**Harry scrambled to his feet, so happy he felt as though a large balloon was swelling inside him. He went straight to the window and jerked it open. The owl swooped in and dropped the newspaper on top of Hagrid, who didn't wake up. The owl then fluttered onto the floor and began to attack Hagrid's coat.**

"See! You see what I mean." Lee exclaimed

"No one was arguing with you Lee." Ginny sighed

**"Don't do that."**

**Harry tried to wave the owl out of the way, but it snapped its beak fiercely at him and carried on savaging the coat.**

**"Hagrid!" said Harry loudly. "There's an owl**

**"Pay him," Hagrid grunted into the sofa.**

**"What?"**

**"He wants payin' fer deliverin' the paper. Look in the pockets." Hagrid's coat seemed to be made of nothing but pockets - bunches of keys, slug pellets, balls of string, peppermint humbugs, teabags... finally, Harry pulled out a handful of strange-looking coins.**

**"Give him five Knuts," said Hagrid sleepily.**

**"Knuts?"**

"Hagrid! Harry doesn't know our money yet." Ginny groaned.

**"The little bronze ones."**

**Harry counted out five little bronze coins, and the owl held out his leg so Harry could put the money into a small leather pouch tied to it. Then he flew off through the open window.**

**Hagrid yawned loudly, sat up, and stretched.**

**"Best be Off, Harry, lots ter do today, gotta get up ter London an' buy all yer stuff fer school."**

**Harry was turning over the wizard coins and looking at them. He had just thought of something that made him feel as though the happy balloon inside him had got a puncture.**

**"Um - Hagrid?"**

**"Mm?" said Hagrid, who was pulling on his huge boots.**

**"I haven't got any money - and you heard Uncle Vernon last night ... he won't pay for me to go and learn magic."**

"Yeah I always wondered how Harry managed to by his school things. Dad never gave him any money yet year after year he had new books whenever he came home for the holidays." Dudley said confused

"Hagrid explains right now." Ginny said

**"Don't worry about that," said Hagrid, standing up and scratching his head. "D'yeh think yer parents didn't leave yeh anything?"**

**"But if their house was destroyed -"**

**"They didn' keep their gold in the house, boy! Nah, first stop fer us is Gringotts. Wizards' bank. Have a sausage, they're not bad cold – an' I wouldn' say no teh a bit o' yer birthday cake, neither."**

"Wait wizards have banks?" Malcolm sneered.

**"Wizards have banks?"**

Lee and Neville roared with laughter at look at Malcolm's face at saying the same thing as 'the skinny weirdo'

**"Just the one. Gringotts. Run by goblins."**

"Goblins?" The four muggles said in shock and disbelief

**Harry dropped the bit of sausage he was holding.**

**"Goblins?"**

Lee and Neville roared with laughter bent over clutching their stomachs and Ginny had a hard time not joining them

**"Yeah – so yeh'd be mad ter try an' rob it, I'll tell yeh that. Never mess with goblins, Harry. Gringotts is the safest place in the world fer anything yeh want ter keep safe – 'cept maybe Hogwarts. As a matter o' fact, I gotta visit Gringotts anyway. Fer Dumbledore. Hogwarts business." Hagrid drew himself up proudly. "He usually gets me ter do important stuff fer him. Fetchin' you gettin' things from Gringotts – knows he can trust me, see.**

**"Got everythin'? Come on, then."**

**Harry followed Hagrid out onto the rock. The sky was quite clear now and the sea gleamed in the sunlight. The boat Uncle Vernon had hired was still there, with a lot of water in the bottom after the storm.**

**"How did you get here?" Harry asked, looking around for another boat. **

**"Flew," said Hagrid.**

"Flew?" was surprisingly chorused by everyone

_**"Flew?"**_

There were mixed reactions around the room. Dudley, Malcolm, Gordon, and Piers all looked disgusted at saying the same thing as Potter. Lee, and Neville laughed. And Ginny blushed a little but luckily no one saw it.

**"Yeah – but we'll go back in this. Not s'pposed ter use magic now I've got yeh."**

**They settled down in the boat, Harry still staring at Hagrid, trying to imagine him flying.**

"So are we mate, so are we." Neville chuckled

**"Seems a shame ter row, though," said Hagrid, giving Harry another of his sideways looks. "If I was ter – er – speed things up a bit, would yeh mind not mentionin' it at Hogwarts?"**

**"Of course not," said Harry, eager to see more magic. Hagrid pulled out the pink umbrella again, tapped it twice on the side of the boat, and they sped off toward land.**

**"Why would you be mad to try and rob Gringotts?" Harry asked.**

**"Spells – enchantments," said Hagrid, unfolding his newspaper as he spoke. "They say there's dragons guardin' the high security vaults. And then yeh gotta find yer way – Gringotts is hundreds of miles under London, see. Deep under the Underground. Yeh'd die of hunger tryin' ter get out, even if yeh did manage ter get yer hands on summat."**

There was a shocking silence from Dudley and his friends.

"Dragons." Piers breathed

"That what it said." Gordon said and then looked at Ginny and asked "so there really are dragons out there?"

"Yeah there are and their extremely dangerous too." she said

"Yep and Harry's seen three." Lee said

"Three?" Dudley chocked out. What exactly had his cousin been through these past 7 years, he had a feeling he didn't want to know.

**Harry sat and thought about this while Hagrid read his newspaper, the **_**Daily Prophet**_**. Harry had learned from Uncle Vernon that people liked to be left alone while they did this, but it was very difficult, he'd never had so many questions in his life.**

**"Ministry o' Magic messin' things up as usual," Hagrid muttered, turning the page.**

**"There's a Ministry of Magic?" Harry asked, before he could stop himself.**

**"'Course," said Hagrid. "They wanted Dumbledore fer Minister, 0 ' course, but he'd never leave Hogwarts, so old Cornelius Fudge got the job. Bungler if ever there was one. So he pelts Dumbledore with owls every morning, askin' fer advice."**

**"But what does a Ministry of Magic **_**do?**_**"**

"Nothing he's completely useless." Ginny muttered darkly

"Oh come on Fudge and Scrimgeour may have been awful but Kingsley's doing a great job so far." Neville said

"Ok I'll give you that, hopefully he'll become minister for good." She smiled

**"Well, their main job is to keep it from the Muggles that there's still witches an' wizards up an' down the country."**

**"Why?"**

_**"Why?**_** Blimey, Harry, everyone'd be wantin' magic solutions to their problems. Nah, we're best left alone."**

"And if they didn't want magical solutions to everything it'd be the Salem witch trials all over again." Neville groaned

"The what?" Malcolm asked

"The Salem witch trials in America back in 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts after a bunch of girls claimed to be possessed by the devil. And then accused a bunch of innocent women were practicing witchcraft or as they called it back then 'the devils magic' so the woman that were accused were either burned at the stake, or drowned most of the time." Neville explained grimly

"But why drown and burn them." Dudley asked

"Because if they didn't drown then they had proof that they were witched and would kill them and if they did drown than they weren't witches. Neville replied "And I guess the burning was the same concept."

"How would they drown them?' Malcolm asked

"They'd tie a boulder to their feet and throw them in a lake."

"Ok as fun as this topic is can we get back to reading." Lee asked seriously **(A/N: Hope everyone enjoyed the short history lesson! And if you didn't sorry but i just love history and i just had to put it.)**

**At this moment the boat bumped gently into the harbor wall. Hagrid folded up his newspaper, and they clambered up the stone steps onto the street.**

**Passersby stared a lot at Hagrid as they walked through the little town to the station. Harry couldn't blame them. Not only was Hagrid twice as tall as anyone else, he kept pointing at perfectly ordinary things like parking meters and saying loudly, "See that, Harry? Things these Muggles dream up, eh?"**

"Nice blending in their Hagrid." Lee snorted smiling

**"Hagrid," said Harry, panting a bit as he ran to keep up, "did you say there are **_**dragons**_** at Gringotts?"**

**"Well, so they say," said Hagrid. "Crikey, I'd like a dragon."**

"He'd like one?" Dudley asked in shock

**"You'd **_**like**_** one?"**

Everyone chuckled at that even Dudley

**"Wanted one ever since I was a kid – here we go."**

**They had reached the station. There was a train to London in five minutes' time. Hagrid, who didn't understand "Muggle money," as he called it, gave the bills to Harry so he could buy their tickets.**

"Muggle money isn't that complicated." Malcolm snorted

"It is if you're not use to it." Neville said

**People stared more than ever on the train. Hagrid took up two seats and sat knitting what looked like a canary-yellow circus tent.**

**"Still got yer letter, Harry?" he asked as he counted stitches. Harry took the parchment envelope out of his pocket.**

**"Good," said Hagrid. "There's a list there of everything yeh need."**

**Harry unfolded a second piece of paper he hadn't noticed the night before, and read:**

**HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY**

**UNIFORM**

**First-year students will require:**

**1. Three sets of plain work robes (black)**

**2. One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear**

"Why do we even need those we never wear them." Lee groaned

"It came in use 1st year which you'll see later." Neville chuckled thinking of his friend

**3. One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)**

**4. One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)**

**Please note that all pupils' clothes should carry name tags**

**COURSE BOOKS**

**All students should have a copy of each of the following:**

_**The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) **_

**by Miranda Goshawk**

_**A History of Magic by **_

**Bathilda Bagshot**

_**Magical Theory **_

**by Adalbert Waffling**

_**A Beginners' Guide to Transfiguration **_

**by Emetic Switch**

_**One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi **_

**by Phyllida Spore**

_**Magical Drafts and Potions **_

**by Arsenius Jigger**

_**Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them **_

**by Newt Scamander**

_**The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection **_

**by Quentin Trimble**

**OTHER EQUIPMENT**

** 1 ****wand **

**1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2) set**

** 1 ****glass or crystal phials**

** 1 ****telescope set**

** 1 ****brass scales**

**Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad**

**PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS **

**ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS**

"You need all that just on one year?" Dudley asked

"Yep." The three Hogwarts students smiled

"So Potter really belongs to this world of mythical creatures and spells?" Piers asked

"Yeah he does." Neville smiled "And he's one of the most famous people in it."

"So does Potter have adoring fan clubs?" Gordon sniggered joking _'as if anyone would look up to Potter'_

"Oh yeah tons of them." Lee laughed "Most of the people in the clubs are girls too."

"Ugh don't remind me?" Ginny grimaced "It gets so annoying when were in Diagon Alley and all you can hear is girls giggling as Harry passes and shooting me dirty looks."

Lee and Neville laughed having seen this in person. It was rather amusing when you thought about it.

**"Can we buy all this in London?" Harry wondered aloud.**

**"If yeh know where to go," said Hagrid.**

**Harry had never been to London before. Although Hagrid seemed to know where he was going, he was obviously not used to getting there in an ordinary way. He got stuck in the ticket barrier on the Underground, and complained loudly that the seats were too small and the trains too slow.**

**"I don't know how the Muggles manage without magic," he said as they climbed a broken-down escalator that led up to a bustling road lined with shops.**

"We manage just fine thank you." Malcolm sniffed

**Hagrid was so huge that he parted the crowd easily; all Harry had to do was keep close behind him. They passed book shops and music stores, hamburger restaurants and cinemas, but nowhere that looked as if it could sell you a magic wand. This was just an ordinary street full of ordinary people. Could there really be piles of wizard gold buried miles beneath them? Were there really shops that sold spell books and broomsticks? Might this not all be some huge joke that the Dursleys had cooked up? If Harry hadn't known that the Dursleys had no sense of humor, he might have thought so; yet somehow, even though everything Hagrid had told him so far was unbelievable, Harry couldn't help trusting him.**

"Everybody trusts Hagrid." Ginny smiled and Lee and Neville nodded in agreement

**"This is it," said Hagrid, coming to a halt, "the Leaky Cauldron. It's a famous place."**

**It was a tiny, grubby-looking pub. If Hagrid hadn't pointed it out, Harry wouldn't have noticed it was there. The people hurrying by didn't glance at it. Their eyes slid from the big book shop on one side to the record shop on the other as if they couldn't see the Leaky Cauldron at all. In fact, Harry had the most peculiar feeling that only he and Hagrid could see it. **

"Because they were." Lee said

"Normal people can't see it?" Gordon asked

"No the _muggles_ can't see it." Ginny said irritated putting emphasis on the word muggle not liking the way Gordon said normal

**Before he could mention this, Hagrid had steered him inside.**

**For a famous place, it was very dark and shabby. A few old women were sitting in a corner, drinking tiny glasses of sherry. One of them was smoking a long pipe. A little man in a top hat was talking to the old bartender, who was quite bald and looked like a toothless walnut. The low buzz of chatter stopped when they walked in. Everyone seemed to know Hagrid; they waved and smiled at him, and the bartender reached for a glass, saying, "The usual, Hagrid?"**

**"Can't, Tom, I'm on Hogwarts business," said Hagrid, clapping his great hand on Harry's shoulder and making Harry's knees buckle.**

**"Good Lord," said the bartender, peering at Harry, "is this – can this be –?"**

**The Leaky Cauldron had suddenly gone completely still and silent.**

"And here it comes." Ginny sighed

"What?" Dudley asked

"Here's first glimpse of what to expect in the future." Lee laughed

"So it's always this bad?" Piers smirked

"It's gotten worse actually." Neville said

**"Bless my soul," whispered the old bartender, "Harry Potter... what an honor."**

**He hurried out from behind the bar, rushed toward Harry and seized his hand, tears in his eyes.**

**"Welcome back, Mr. Potter, welcome back."**

**Harry didn't know what to say. Everyone was looking at him. The old woman with the pipe was puffing on it without realizing it had gone out. Hagrid was beaming.**

**Then there was a great scraping of chairs and the next moment, Harry found himself shaking hands with everyone in the Leaky Cauldron.**

Dudley and his friends starting laughing imagining 'potter's' face at getting all that attention but quieted down from the glare Ginny was sending their way

**"Doris Crockford, Mr. Potter, can't believe I'm meeting you at last."**

**"So proud, Mr. Potter, I'm just so proud."**

**"Always wanted to shake your hand – I'm all of a flutter."**

**"Delighted, Mr. Potter, just can't tell you, Diggle's the name, Dedalus Diggle."**

**"I've seen you before!" said Harry, as Dedalus Diggle's top hat fell off in his excitement. "You bowed to me once in a shop."**

**"He remembers!" cried Dedalus Diggle, looking around at everyone. "Did you hear that? He remembers me!" Harry shook hands again and again - Doris Crockford kept coming back for more.**

**A pale young man made his way forward, very nervously. One of his eyes was twitching.**

Neville, and Ginny both glared at the book at the description

**"Professor Quirrell!" said Hagrid. "Harry, Professor Quirrell will be one of your teachers at Hogwarts."**

**"P-P-Potter," stammered Professor Quirrell, grasping Harry's hand, "c-can't t-tell you how p- pleased I am to meet you."**

**"What sort of magic do you teach, Professor Quirrell?"**

**"D-Defense Against the D-D-Dark Arts," muttered Professor Quirrell, as though he'd rather not think about it. "N-not that you n-need it, eh, P-P-Potter?" He laughed nervously. "You'll be g-getting all your equipment, I suppose? I've g-got to p-pick up a new b-book on vampires, m-myself." He looked terrified at the very thought.**

"What kind of teacher is afraid of his own subject?" Malcolm sneered

"One's who's a very good actor unfortunately." Neville said still glaring at the book ignoring the confused looks he was getting.

**But the others wouldn't let Professor Quirrell keep Harry to himself. It took almost ten minutes to get away from them all. At last, Hagrid managed to make himself heard over the babble.**

**"Must get on - lots ter buy. Come on, Harry."**

**Doris Crockford shook Harry's hand one last time, and Hagrid led them through the bar and out into a small, walled courtyard, where there was nothing but a trash can and a few weeds.**

**Hagrid grinned at Harry.**

**"Told yeh, didn't I? Told yeh you was famous. Even Professor Quirrell was tremblin' ter meet yeh - mind you, he's usually tremblin'."**

**"Is he always that nervous?"**

**"Oh, yeah. Poor bloke. Brilliant mind. He was fine while he was studyin' outta books but then he took a year off ter get some firsthand experience... They say he met vampires in the Black Forest, and there was a nasty bit o' trouble with a hag - never been the same since. Scared of the students, scared of his own subject now, where's me umbrella?"**

"Actually he met something worse than vampires and hags." Ginny muttered darkly. Lee looked at her in concern _'could the rumors from that year be true?' _

**Vampires? Hags? Harry's head was swimming. Hagrid, meanwhile, was counting bricks in the wall above the trash can.**

**"Three up... two across he muttered. "Right, stand back, Harry."**

**He tapped the wall three times with the point of his umbrella.**

**The brick he had touched quivered - it wriggled - in the middle, a small hole appeared - it grew wider and wider - a second later they were facing an archway large enough even for Hagrid, an archway onto a cobbled street that twisted and turned out of sight.**

Neville and Lee chuckled at the looks of astonishment on Dudley and his friends faces.

**"Welcome," said Hagrid, "to Diagon Alley."**

**He grinned at Harry's amazement. They stepped through the archway. Harry looked quickly over his shoulder and saw the archway shrink instantly back into solid wall.**

**The sun shone brightly on a stack of cauldrons outside the nearest shop. Cauldrons - All Sizes - Copper, Brass, Pewter, Silver - Self-Stirring - Collapsible, said a sign hanging over them.**

Needless to say the looks were still there

**"Yeah, you'll be needin' one," said Hagrid, "but we gotta get yer money first."**

**Harry wished he had about eight more eyes. He turned his head in every direction as they walked up the street, trying to look at everything at once: the shops, the things outside them, the people doing their shopping. A plump woman outside an Apothecary was shaking her head as they passed, saying, "Dragon liver, seventeen Sickles an ounce, they're mad..."**

**A low, soft hooting came from a dark shop with a sign saying Eeylops Owl Emporium - Tawny, Screech, Barn, Brown, and Snowy. Several boys of about Harry's age had their noses pressed against a window with broomsticks in it. "Look," Harry heard one of them say, "the new Nimbus Two Thousand - fastest ever -" There were shops selling robes, shops selling telescopes and strange silver instruments Harry had never seen before, windows stacked with barrels of bat spleens and eels' eyes, tottering piles of spell books, quills, and rolls of parchment, potion bottles, globes of the moon...**

"Wow." Dudley breathed _'this place sounds amazing! Not that I'd ever say that to Mum and Dad_

**"Gringotts," said Hagrid.**

**They had reached a snowy white building that towered over the other little shops. Standing beside its burnished bronze doors, wearing a uniform of scarlet and gold, was -**

**"Yeah, that's a goblin," said Hagrid quietly as they walked up the white stone steps toward him. The goblin was about a head shorter than Harry. He had a swarthy, clever face, a pointed beard and, Harry noticed, very long fingers and feet. He bowed as they walked inside. Now they were facing a second pair of doors, silver this time, with words engraved upon them:**

_**Enter, stranger, but take heed**_

_**Of what awaits the sin of greed,**_

_**For those who take, but do not earn,**_

_**Must pay most dearly in their turn.**_

_**So if you seek beneath our floors**_

_**A treasure that was never yours,**_

_**Thief, you have been warned, beware**_

_**Of finding more than treasure there.**_

**"Like I said, Yeh'd be mad ter try an' rob it," said Hagrid.**

"Yep completely and utterly mad." Lee smirked.

Neville and Ginny smirked as well much to the confusion of the others

**A pair of goblins bowed them through the silver doors and they were in a vast marble hall. About a hundred more goblins were sitting on high stools behind a long counter, scribbling in large ledgers, weighing coins in brass scales, examining precious stones through eyeglasses. There were too many doors to count leading off the hall, and yet more goblins were showing people in and out of these. Hagrid and Harry made for the counter.**

**"Morning," said Hagrid to a free goblin. "We've come ter take some money outta Mr. Harry Potter's safe."**

**"You have his key, Sir?"**

**"Got it here somewhere," said Hagrid, and he started emptying his pockets onto the counter, scattering a handful of moldy dog biscuits over the goblin's book of numbers. The goblin wrinkled his nose. Harry watched the goblin on their right weighing a pile of rubies as big as glowing coals.**

**"Got it," said Hagrid at last, holding up a tiny golden key.**

**The goblin looked at it closely.**

**"That seems to be in order."**

**"An' I've also got a letter here from Professor Dumbledore," said Hagrid importantly, throwing out his chest. "It's about the YouKnow-What in vault seven hundred and thirteen."**

"I really whished he hadn't said it like that." Ginny groaned

"Why?" Gordon asked

"Because Harry is the most curious person you'll ever meet." She said and Neville nodded in agreement

**The goblin read the letter carefully.**

**"Very well," he said, handing it back to Hagrid, "I will have Someone take you down to both vaults. Griphook!"**

Ginny, Neville, even Lee all frowned at the mention of the goblin that double-crossed their friends, no had heard from his since

**Griphook was yet another goblin. Once Hagrid had crammed all the dog biscuits back inside his pockets, he and Harry followed Griphook toward one of the doors leading off the hall.**

**"What's the You-Know-What in vault seven hundred and thirteen?" Harry asked.**

**"Can't tell yeh that," said Hagrid mysteriously. "Very secret. Hogwarts business. Dumbledore's trusted me. More'n my job's worth ter tell yeh that."**

The Gryffindor's all face palmed at Hagrid's past action much to the amusement of the other four readers

**Griphook held the door open for them. Harry, who had expected more marble, was surprised. They were in a narrow stone passageway lit with flaming torches. It sloped steeply downward and there were little railway tracks on the floor. Griphook whistled and a small cart came hurtling up the tracks toward them. They climbed in - Hagrid with some difficulty - and were off.**

**At first they just hurtled through a maze of twisting passages. Harry tried to remember, left, right, right, left, middle fork, right, left, but it was impossible. The rattling cart seemed to know its own way, because Griphook wasn't steering.**

**Harry's eyes stung as the cold air rushed past them, but he kept them wide open. Once, he thought he saw a burst of fire at the end of a passage and twisted around to see if it was a dragon, but too late - - they plunged even deeper, passing an underground lake where huge stalactites and stalagmites grew from the ceiling and floor.**

**I never know," Harry called to Hagrid over the noise of the cart, "what's the difference between a stalagmite and a stalactite?"**

**"Stalagmite's got an 'm' in it," said Hagrid. "An' don' ask me questions just now, I think I'm gonna be sick."**

Ginny laughed at this

"What's so funny?" Malcolm asked

"Just imagining the look on my friends face if she had heard Hagrid say that." She laughed again this time Lee and Neville joined her catching on to who she was referring to

**He did look very green, and when the cart stopped at last beside a small door in the passage wall, Hagrid got out and had to lean against the wall to stop his knees from trembling.**

**Griphook unlocked the door. A lot of green smoke came billowing out, and as it cleared, Harry gasped. Inside were mounds of gold coins. Columns of silver. Heaps of little bronze Knuts.**

"Wait so Potter's rich?" Gordon asked in disbelief

"The Potter's were one of the richest families and now it all went to Harry so yeah I guess you could say he is." Neville mused

"Well ginger if you ever get tired of dating potter for his money and want to date a real man give me a holler." He winked in Ginny's direction. Neville and Lee looked at Gordon in disbelief for a few minutes while Ginny slowly turned red. Neville quickly made the book read again before Ginny could snap and break his nose again.

**"All yours," smiled Hagrid.**

**All Harry's - it was incredible. The Dursleys couldn't have known about this or they'd have had it from him faster than blinking. How often had they complained how much Harry cost them to keep? And all the time there had been a small fortune belonging to him, buried deep under London.**

Neville shifted in his seat feeling uncomfortable, knowing his dad he probably would of tried to take Harry's money

**Hagrid helped Harry pile some of it into a bag.**

**"The gold ones are Galleons," he explained. "Seventeen silver Sickles to a Galleon and twenty-nine Knuts to a Sickle, it's easy enough. Right, that should be enough fer a couple o' terms, we'll keep the rest safe for yeh." He turned to Griphook. "Vault seven hundred and thirteen now, please, and can we go more slowly?"**

"Sorry Hagrid only on speed." Lee said in sympathy he hated the carts as well

**"One speed only," said Griphook.**

Neville chuckled at the look on Lee's face

**They were going even deeper now and gathering speed. The air became colder and colder as they hurtled round tight corners. They went rattling over an underground ravine, and Harry leaned over the side to try to see what was down at the dark bottom, but Hagrid groaned and pulled him back by the scruff of his neck.**

"Does that boy have any self-preservation instincts at all?!" Ginny yelled throwing her hands in the air making her two friends snigger

**Vault seven hundred and thirteen had no keyhole.**

**"Stand back," said Griphook importantly. He stroked the door gently with one of his long fingers and it simply melted away.**

**"If anyone but a Gringotts goblin tried that, they'd be sucked through the door and trapped in there," said Griphook.**

**"How often do you check to see if anyone's inside?" Harry asked.**

**"About once every ten years," said Griphook with a rather nasty grin.**

"Well aren't they lovely." Piers snorted

**Something really extraordinary had to be inside this top security vault, Harry was sure, and he leaned forward eagerly, expecting to see fabulous jewels at the very least - but at first he thought it was empty. Then he noticed a grubby little package wrapped up in brown paper lying on the floor. Hagrid picked it up and tucked it deep inside his coat. Harry longed to know what it was, but knew better than to ask.**

Three people had to fight to keep the smirks off their faces.

**"Come on, back in this infernal cart, and don't talk to me on the way back, it's best if I keep me mouth shut," said Hagrid.**

**One wild cart ride later they stood blinking in the sunlight outside Gringotts. Harry didn't know where to run first now that he had a bag full of money. He didn't have to know how many Galleons there were to a pound to know that he was holding more money than he'd had in his whole life - more money than even Dudley had ever had.**

**"Might as well get yer uniform," said Hagrid, nodding toward Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. "Listen, Harry, would yeh mind if I slipped off fer a pick-me-up in the Leaky Cauldron? I hate them Gringotts carts." He did still look a bit sick, so Harry entered Madam Malkin's shop alone, feeling nervous.**

**Madam Malkin was a squat, smiling witch dressed all in mauve.**

**"Hogwarts, clear?" she said, when Harry started to speak. "Got the lot here - another young man being fitted up just now, in fact. "**

"Harry met someone from Hogwarts in Diagon Alley he never mentioned it." Ginny frowned

**In the back of the shop, a boy with a pale, pointed face **

"Oh no wonder he never mentioned it." She grimaced. Neville and Lee agreed with her already figuring out who it was

**was standing on a footstool while a second witch pinned up his long black robes. Madam Malkin stood Harry on a stool next to him) slipped a long robe over his head, and began to pin it to the right length.**

**"Hello," said the boy, "Hogwarts, too?"**

**"Yes," said Harry.**

**"My father's next door buying my books and mother's up the street looking at wands," said the boy. He had a bored, drawling voice. "Then I'm going to drag them off to took at racing brooms. I don't see why first years can't have their own. I think I'll bully father into getting me one and I'll smuggle it in somehow."**

**Harry was strongly reminded of Dudley.**

Neville winced at that if this kid reminded harry of him then this kid couldn't be good news

**"Have you got your own broom?" the boy went on.**

**"No," said Harry.**

**"Play Quidditch at all?"**

"Hey doesn't Potter have a book on quidditch in his room?" Piers asked

"Oh yeah he does. So it's a sport for wizards or something?" Dudley asked

"It's the best sport in the world." Lee said with Ginny and Neville nodding in agreement

"Don't why Potter would have a book on it Potter's so scrawny he can't play a sport to save his face.

What the four muggles failed to notice was the looks the three wizards sent each other

**"No," Harry said again, wondering what on earth Quidditch could be.**

"Say what now?" Lee said in shock

"Yeah before our first flying lesson Harry had never been on a broom." Neville laughed at the look on Lee face

"Bet Potter looked like an idiot." Gordon sneered _let's see how much longer ginger sticks with potter when she sees how much a wimp he is._

**"I do - Father says it's a crime if I'm not picked to play for my house, and I must say, I agree. Know what house you'll be in yet?"**

**"No," said Harry, feeling more stupid by the minute.**

"That's because Potter is stupid." Malcolm sniggerd

"Oh yeah spell Hypocrite." Ginny said with a smirk.

After a few minutes of Malcolm trying to spell the word and Lee and Neville roaring with laughter Ginny decided to have the book start reading again

**"Well, no one really knows until they get there, do they, but I know I'll be in Slytherin, all our family have been - imagine being in Hufflepuff, I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?" **

"Theirs nothing wrong with Hufflepuff." Neville snapped in defense of his girlfriend

**"Mmm," said Harry, wishing he could say something a bit more interesting.**

**"I say, look at that man!" said the boy suddenly, nodding toward the front window. Hagrid was standing there, grinning at Harry and pointing at two large ice creams to show he couldn't come in.**

**"That's Hagrid," said Harry, pleased to know something the boy didn't. "He works at Hogwarts."**

**"Oh," said the boy, "I've heard of him. He's a sort of servant, isn't he?"**

**"He's the gamekeeper," said Harry. He was liking the boy less and less every second.**

"Trust me Harry you're not the only one." Ginny said

**"Yes, exactly. I heard he's a sort of savage - lives in a hut on the school grounds and every now and then he gets drunk, tries to do magic, and ends up setting fire to his bed."**

**"I think he's brilliant," said Harry coldly.**

"You tell him Harry!" Lee cheered

**"Do you?" said the boy, with a slight sneer. "Why is he with you? Where are your parents?"**

**"They're dead," said Harry shortly. He didn't feel much like going into the matter with this boy.**

"Good it's none of his business in the first place." Dudley said then blushed at the looks he was getting "What if this kids reminds harry of me then he can't be good and I'm getting a bad feeling about this person."

"Good instinct there Dudley." Lee comment and Ginny nodded

"Your right this kid might be worse then you were in some aspects."

**"Oh, sorry," said the other, not sounding sorry at all. "But they were our kind, weren't they?"**

**"They were a witch and wizard, if that's what you mean."**

**"I really don't think they should let the other sort in, do you? They're just not the same, they've never been brought up to know our ways. Some of them have never even heard of Hogwarts until they get the letter, imagine. I think they should keep it in the old wizarding families. What's your surname, anyway?"**

"It doesn't matter what his last name is and it certainly doesn't matter if his parents were our kind or not." Ginny snapped "And their nothing wrong with coming from a muggle family."

**But before Harry could answer, Madam Malkin said, "That's you done, my dear," and Harry, not sorry for an excuse to stop talking to the boy, hopped down from the footstool.**

**"Well, I'll see you at Hogwarts, I suppose," said the drawling boy.**

**Harry was rather quiet as he ate the ice cream Hagrid had bought him (chocolate and raspberry with chopped nuts).**

"My favorite." Ginny smiled

**"What's up?" said Hagrid.**

**"Nothing," Harry lied. They stopped to buy parchment and quills. Harry cheered up a bit when he found a bottle of ink that changed color as you wrote. When they had left the shop, he said, "Hagrid, what's Quidditch?"**

**"Blimey, Harry, I keep forgettin' how little yeh know - not knowin' about Quidditch!"**

**"Don't make me feel worse," said Harry. He told Hagrid about the pate boy in Madam Malkin's.**

"Harry you shouldn't care what that prat thinks." Neville frowned

**"-and he said people from Muggle families shouldn't even be allowed in."**

**"Yer not from a Muggle family. If he'd known who yeh were - he's grown up knowin' yer name if his parents are wizardin' folk. You saw what everyone in the Leaky Cauldron was like when they saw yeh. Anyway, what does he know about it, some o' the best I ever saw were the only ones with magic in 'em in a long line O' Muggles - look at yer mum! Look what she had fer a sister!"**

**"So what is Quidditch?"**

**"It's our sport. Wizard sport. It's like - like soccer in the Muggle world - everyone follows Quidditch - played up in the air on broomsticks and there's four balls - sorta hard ter explain the rules." "And what are Slytherin and Hufflepuff?"**

"So you guys can fly on broomsticks." Piers asked wide-eyed

"Yep." Ginny smiled smugly at the looks on the muggles faces

**"School houses. There's four. Everyone says Hufflepuff are a lot o' duffers, but -"**

"They're not!" Neville huffed

**"I bet I'm in Hufflepuff" said Harry gloomily.**

**"Better Hufflepuff than Slytherin," said Hagrid darkly. "There's not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin. You-Know-Who was one."**

**"Vol-, sorry - You-Know-Who was at Hogwarts?"**

**"Years an' years ago," said Hagrid.**

"Is there only one school in Britain?" Dudley asked

"Yes as far as I know." Ginny shrugged

**They bought Harry's school books in a shop called Flourish and Blotts where the shelves were stacked to the ceiling with books as large as paving stones bound in leather; books the size of postage stamps in covers of silk; books full of peculiar symbols and a few books with nothing in them at all. Even Dudley, who never read anything, would have been wild to get his hands on some of these. Hagrid almost had to drag Harry away from **_**Curses and Counter-curses (Bewitch Your Friends and Befuddle Your Enemies with the Latest Revenges: Hair Loss, Jelly-Legs, Tongue- Tying and Much, Much More)**_** by Professor Vindictus Viridian.**

**"I was trying to find out how to curse Dudley."**

Dudley paled at that. Not that he'd ever admit but his cousin really did scare him sometimes especially two summers ago when he had been the closest to hexing him that he had ever been in five years.

**"I'm not sayin' that's not a good idea, but yer not ter use magic in the Muggle world except in very special circumstances," said Hagrid. "An' anyway, yeh couldn' work any of them curses yet, yeh'll need a lot more study before yeh get ter that level."**

**Hagrid wouldn't let Harry buy a solid gold cauldron, either ("It says pewter on yer list"), but they got a nice set of scales for weighing potion ingredients and a collapsible brass telescope. Then they visited the Apothecary, which was fascinating enough to make up for its horrible smell, a mixture of bad eggs and rotted cabbages. Barrels of slimy stuff stood on the floor; jars of herbs, dried roots, and bright powders lined the walls; bundles of feathers, strings of fangs, and snarled claws hung from the ceiling. While Hagrid asked the man behind the counter for a supply of some basic potion ingredients for Harry, Harry himself examined silver unicorn horns at twenty-one Galleons each and minuscule, glittery-black beetle eyes (five Knuts a scoop).**

"So not only can you do spells and have owls as pets put you can make potions too." Malcolm asked

"Yeah"

"So what can the potions do." Gordon asked

"It depends on the potion." Lee shrugged

The muggles all shared looks of amazement

**Outside the Apothecary, Hagrid checked Harry's list again.**

**"Just yer wand left - A yeah, an' I still haven't got yeh a birthday present."**

Harry's friend smiled at that

**Harry felt himself go red.**

**"You don't have to -"**

**"I know I don't have to. Tell yeh what, I'll get yer animal. Not a toad, toads went outta fashion years ago, yeh'd be laughed at**

Neville opened his mouth to protest but shrugged instead what could he say Hagrid had a point

**- an' I don' like cats, they make me sneeze. I'll get yer an owl. All the kids want owls, they're dead useful, carry yer mail an' everythin'."**

**Twenty minutes later, they left Eeylops Owl Emporium, which had been dark and full of rustling and flickering, jewel-bright eyes. Harry now carried a large cage that held a beautiful snowy owl, fast asleep with her head under her wing.**

"Man they owl could make a racket when she wanted to." Dudley said smiling

"I bet, Hedwig was certainly one of a kind." Neville said smiling sadly

"Was?"

"Yeah the day Harry left last summer she died protecting Harry." Ginny said bowing her head

**He couldn't stop stammering his thanks, sounding just like Professor Quirrell.**

**"Don' mention it," said Hagrid gruffly. "Don' expect you've had a lotta presents from them Dursleys. Just Ollivanders left now - only place fer wands, Ollivanders, and yeh gotta have the best wand."**

**A magic wand... this was what Harry had been really looking forward to.**

"You and everyone else mate." Lee chucked

**The last shop was narrow and shabby. Peeling gold letters over the door read Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 ****B.C****. A single wand lay on a faded purple cushion in the dusty window.**

**A tinkling bell rang somewhere in the depths of the shop as they stepped inside. It was a tiny place, empty except for a single, spindly chair that Hagrid sat on to wait. Harry felt strangely as though he had entered a very strict library; he swallowed a lot of new questions that had just occurred to him and looked instead at the thousands of narrow boxes piled neatly right up to the ceiling. For some reason, the back of his neck prickled. The very dust and silence in here seemed to tingle with some secret magic.**

**"Good afternoon," said a soft voice. Harry jumped. Hagrid must have jumped, too, because there was a loud crunching noise and he got quickly off the spindly chair.**

"That explains why it was broken when we went to go get Ron's wand." Ginny laughed

**An old man was standing before them, his wide, pale eyes shining like moons through the gloom of the shop.**

**"Hello," said Harry awkwardly.**

**"Ah yes," said the man. "Yes, yes. I thought I'd be seeing you soon. Harry Potter." It wasn't a question. "You have your mother's eyes. It seems only yesterday she was in here herself, buying her first wand. Ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow. Nice wand for charm work."**

**Mr. Ollivander moved closer to Harry. Harry wished he would blink. Those silvery eyes were a bit creepy.**

**"Your father, on the other hand, favored a mahogany wand. Eleven inches. Pliable. A little more power and excellent for transfiguration. Well, I say your father favored it - it's really the wand that chooses the wizard, of course."**

**Mr. Ollivander had come so close that he and Harry were almost nose to nose. Harry could see himself reflected in those misty eyes.**

**"And that's where..."**

**Mr. Ollivander touched the lightning scar on Harry's forehead with a long, white finger.**

"I always thought he was kind of creepy." Lee shuddered

**"I'm sorry to say I sold the wand that did it," he said softly. "Thirteen-and-a-half inches. Yew. Powerful wand, very powerful, and in the wrong hands... well, if I'd known what that wand was going out into the world to do..."**

**He shook his head and then, to Harry's relief, spotted Hagrid.**

**"Rubeus! Rubeus Hagrid! How nice to see you again... Oak, sixteen inches, rather bendy, wasn't it?"**

**"It was, sir, yes," said Hagrid.**

**"Good wand, that one. But I suppose they snapped it in half when you got expelled?" said Mr. Ollivander, suddenly stern.**

**"Er - yes, they did, yes," said Hagrid, shuffling his feet. "I've still got the pieces, though," he added brightly.**

**"But you don't use them?" said Mr. Ollivander sharply.**

**"Oh, no, sit," said Hagrid quickly. Harry noticed he gripped his pink umbrella very tightly as he spoke.**

"Very discreet there Hagrid." Lee laughed

**"Hmmm," said Mr. Ollivander, giving Hagrid a piercing look. "Well, now - Mr. Potter. Let me see." He pulled a long tape measure with silver markings out of his pocket. "Which is your wand arm?"**

**"Er - well, I'm right-handed," said Harry.**

**"Hold out your arm. That's it." He measured Harry from shoulder to finger, then wrist to elbow, shoulder to floor, knee to armpit and round his head. As he measured, he said, "Every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful magical substance, Mr. Potter. We use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers, and the heartstrings of dragons. No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as no two unicorns, dragons, or phoenixes are quite the same. And of course, you will never get such good results with another wizard's wand."**

Dudley, Piers, Malcolm, And Gordon were all leaned forward paying more attention than they ever had in their lives at the information on this world they were just introduced to.

**Harry suddenly realized that the tape measure, which was measuring between his nostrils, was doing this on its own. Mr. Ollivander was flitting around the shelves, taking down boxes.**

**"That will do," he said, and the tape measure crumpled into a heap on the floor. "Right then, Mr. Potter. Try this one. Beechwood and dragon heartstring. Nine inches. Nice and flexible. just take it and give it a wave."**

**Harry took the wand and (feeling foolish) waved it around a bit, but Mr. Ollivander snatched it out of his hand almost at once.**

**"Maple and phoenix feather. Seven inches. Quite whippy. Try -"**

**Harry tried - but he had hardly raised the wand when it, too, was snatched back by Mr. Ollivander.**

**"No, no -here, ebony and unicorn hair, eight and a half inches, springy. Go on, go on, try it out."**

**Harry tried. And tried. He had no idea what Mr. Ollivander was waiting for. The pile of tried wands was mounting higher and higher on the spindly chair, but the more wands Mr. Ollivander pulled from the shelves, the happier he seemed to become.**

"He loves a challenge thinks it means the person special." Lee said

"How do you know?" Dudley asked

"A friend of mine who had spent a lot of time with him told me." Was all he said

**"Tricky customer, eh? Not to worry, we'll find the perfect match here somewhere - I wonder, now - - yes, why not - unusual combination - holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches, nice and supple."**

"And we have a winner." Lee said in his commenter voice making everyone laugh

**Harry took the wand. He felt a sudden warmth in his fingers. He raised the wand above his head, brought it swishing down through the dusty air and a stream of red and gold sparks shot from the end like a firework, throwing dancing spots of light on to the walls. Hagrid whooped and clapped and Mr. Ollivander cried, "Oh, bravo! Yes, indeed, oh, very good. Well, well, well... how curious... how very curious... "**

**He put Harry's wand back into its box and wrapped it in brown paper, still muttering, "Curious... curious..**

**"Sorry," said Harry, "but what's curious?"**

**Mr. Ollivander fixed Harry with his pale stare.**

**"I remember every wand I've ever sold, Mr. Potter. Every single wand. It so happens that the phoenix whose tail feather is in your wand, gave another feather - just one other. It is very curious indeed that you should be destined for this wand when its brother why, its brother gave you that scar."**

"What so Harry's wand and the wand of this You-Know-Who person had the same core?" Dudley asked

"No the bird that gave a feather to Harry's wand also gave another feather which went in the one Voldemort bought as a child." Ginny explained

"Harry never mentioned that." Lee said

"He doesn't like telling a lot of people." Neville and Ginny shrugged

"Can't say I blame him." Lee mumbled

**Harry swallowed.**

**"Yes, thirteen-and-a-half inches. Yew. Curious indeed how these things happen. The wand chooses the wizard, remember... I think we must expect great things from you, Mr. Potter... After all, He- Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did great things - terrible, yes, but great."**

**Harry shivered. He wasn't sure he liked Mr. Ollivander too much. He paid seven gold Galleons for his wand, and Mr. Ollivander bowed them from his shop.**

**The late afternoon sun hung low in the sky as Harry and Hagrid made their way back down Diagon Alley, back through the wall, back through the Leaky Cauldron, now empty. Harry didn't speak at all as they walked down the road; he didn't even notice how much people were gawking at them on the Underground, laden as they were with all their funny-shaped packages, with the snowy owl asleep in its cage on Harry's lap. Up another escalator, out into Paddington station; Harry only realized where they were when Hagrid tapped him on the shoulder.**

**"Got time fer a bite to eat before yer train leaves," he said.**

**He bought Harry a hamburger and they sat down on plastic seats to eat them. Harry kept looking around. Everything looked so strange, somehow.**

**"You all right, Harry? Yer very quiet," said Hagrid.**

**Harry wasn't sure he could explain. He'd just had the best birthday of his life - and yet - he chewed his hamburger, trying to find the words.**

**"Everyone thinks I'm special," he said at last. "All those people in the Leaky Cauldron, Professor Quirrell, Mr. Ollivander... but I don't know anything about magic at all. How can they expect great things? I'm famous and I can't even remember what I'm famous for. I don't know what happened when Vol-, sorry - I mean, the night my parents died."**

"He really does have a low self-esteem doesn't he." Neville said sending a glare in the direction of the person responsible for this who winced at the glare and shifted guiltily in his seat

**Hagrid leaned across the table. Behind the wild beard and eyebrows he wore a very kind smile.**

**"Don' you worry, Harry. You'll learn fast enough. Everyone starts at the beginning at Hogwarts, you'll be just fine. just be yerself. I know it's hard. Yeh've been singled out, an' that's always hard. But yeh'll have a great time at Hogwarts - I did - still do, 'smatter of fact."**

"Yeah you do have fun at Hogwarts it's never boring that's for sure." Lee laughed

"Especially when you're friends with harry." Neville smiled

**Hagrid helped Harry on to the train that would take him back to the Dursleys, then handed him an envelope.**

**"Yer ticket fer Hogwarts, " he said. "First o' September - King's Cross - it's all on yer ticket. Any problems with the Dursleys, send me a letter with yer owl, she'll know where to find me... See yeh soon, Harry."**

**The train pulled out of the station. Harry wanted to watch Hagrid until he was out of sight; he rose in his seat and pressed his nose against the window, but he blinked and Hagrid had gone.**

"Well that's the chapter. What's next?" Piers said

"I don't know let's see

"**The Journey from Platform Nine and Three- Quarters." **Read the book

* * *

**Well I hope you liked it and i hope you had a great holiday.**

**ok so i gonna start something new if you are the first to guess what movie the quote is from for each chapter you get a shout out! on the next chapter?**

**" I hope you have a heart, Aleera, because someday I'm going to drive a stake through it"**


	7. Platform 9 34

**Well here's the next chapter enjoy! Oh and this chapter is dedicated to The Poet's Daughter for being the first one to get the quote from the last chapter which was from 'Van Helsing' Ok now onto review answers**

**Sapphire Gray Black: Glad you like the story! Hope to see more reviews in the future**

**Post more: the original author and I have agreed we want to be somewhat different for other 'reading the book story's so Harry will not be appearing**

**The Poet's Daughter: 1.) Malcolm, Gordon, and Piers don't comment often because I just don't picture them caring about Harry at all really so but I'll try to have them comment a little more but not too much 2) ok thank you for the comment on periods after comments I will remember that. And the last chapter wasn't edited at all so that's why there is a lot of grammar mistakes. 3.) I'll do that, once again thank you for the advice I truly appreciate it.**

**Silvers45: I'll try to add more comments your right there are a lot of space between comments hopefully the more I right the more comments there will be. And like I said earlier Harry will not be appearing in this story**

**Harryfan160889: Thank you for pointing out where I did that with Dudley and Neville I hadn't noticed it and I had checked several times so I will fix it**

**Writer Sage: Thank you I will fix both the Hedwig comment and the Dudley/Neville thing. And I will try**

**Ok to everyone else who commented but wasn't given a reply thank you so much your replies truly are my motivation to keep writing!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter J.K Rowling does! This is just for fun**

**The Journey from Platform Nine and Three-Quarters**

**Harry's last month with the Dursleys wasn't fun.**

"Shocker." Ginny muttered.

**True, Dudley was now so scared of Harry he wouldn't stay in the same room, while Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon didn't shut Harry in his cupboard, force him to do anything, or shout at him – in fact, they didn't speak to him at all. Half terrified, half furious, they acted as though any chair with Harry in it were empty. Although this was an improvement in many ways, it did become a bit depressing after a while.**

Dudley slunk low in his seat trying to ignore the feelings of guilt rising.

**Harry kept to his room, with his new owl for company. He had decided to call her Hedwig, a name he had found in A History of Magic. His school books were very interesting. He lay on his bed reading late into the night,**

"No Harry! Don't go to the dark side!" Lee cried making everyone laugh.

**Hedwig swooping in and out of the open window as she pleased. It was lucky that Aunt Petunia didn't come in to vacuum anymore, because Hedwig kept bringing back dead mice.**

"Mum would've flipped," Dudley agreed.

**Every night before he went to sleep, Harry ticked off another day on the piece of paper he had pinned to the wall, counting down to September the first.**

"Same here," said Lee. "Couldn't wait to get back and start causing mayhem."

**On the last day of August he thought he'd better speak to his aunt and uncle about getting to King's Cross station the next day, so he went down to the living room where they were watching a quiz show on television. He cleared his throat to let them know he was there, and Dudley screamed and ran from the room.**

Dudley turned red while everyone else laughed.

**"Er – Uncle Vernon?"**

**Uncle Vernon grunted to show he was listening.**

**"Er – I need to be at King's Cross tomorrow to – to go to Hogwarts."**

**Uncle Vernon grunted again.**

**"Would it be all right if you gave me a lift?"**

**Grunt. Harry supposed that meant yes.**

"I didn't know Harry spoke troll." Neville joked.

**"Thank you."**

**He was about to go back upstairs when Uncle Vernon actually spoke.**

**"Funny way to get to a wizards' school, the train. Magic carpets all got punctures, have they?"**

"We don't use them here." Ginny said.

"You don't?" Gordon asked.

"No there more common over in Arabia, Morocco and places like that. Besides, they're banned since they classify as a muggle artifact." **(A/N: I don't know if that's true or not but ya just go with it!)**

**Harry didn't say anything.**

**"Where is this school, anyway?"**

"Somewhere in Scotland we're never told the exact location." Neville said.

**"I don't know," said Harry, realizing this for the first time. He pulled the ticket Hagrid had given him out of his pocket.**

**"I just take the train from platform nine and three-quarters at eleven o'clock," he read.**

**His aunt and uncle stared.**

**"Platform what?"**

**"Nine and three-quarters."**

**"Don't talk rubbish," said Uncle Vernon. "There is no platform nine and three-quarters."**

"Oh yes there is." Lee said in a sing-song type of voice causing Ginny to hit him in the back of the head effectively shutting him up.

**"It's on my ticket."**

**"Barking," said Uncle Vernon, "howling mad, the lot of them. You'll see. You just wait. All right, we'll take you to King's Cross. We're going up to London tomorrow anyway, or I wouldn't bother."**

**"Why are you going to London?" Harry asked, trying to keep things friendly.**

**"Taking Dudley to the hospital," growled Uncle Vernon. "Got to have that ruddy tail removed before he goes to Smeltings."**

"Oh but it'd be such a good conversation starter." Lee whined. "You could just walk up to someone, say I got a pig's tail and boom, best friend for life. Of course they might look at you like you're mad..."

**Harry woke at five o'clock the next morning and was too excited and nervous to go back to sleep.**

**He got up and pulled on his jeans because he didn't want to walk into the station in his wizard's robes – he'd change on the train. He checked his Hogwarts list yet again to make sure he had everything he needed, saw that Hedwig was shut safely in her cage, and then paced the room, waiting for the Dursleys to get up. Two hours later, Harry's huge, heavy trunk had been loaded into the Dursleys' car, Aunt Petunia had talked Dudley into sitting next to Harry, and they had set off.**

"How long did it take your mom to convince you to sit next to Potter?" Piers asked.

"45 minutes." Dudley mumbled making everyone laugh.

**They reached King's Cross at half past ten. Uncle Vernon dumped Harry's trunk onto a cart and wheeled it into the station for him. Harry thought this was strangely kind until Uncle Vernon stopped dead, facing the platforms with a nasty grin on his face.**

"Run Harry!" Lee cried making Neville laugh and Ginny smile.

**"Well, there you are, boy. Platform nine – platform ten. Your platform should be somewhere in the middle, but they don't seem to have built it yet, do they?"**

**He was quite right, of course. There was a big plastic number nine over one platform and a big plastic number ten over the one next to it, and in the middle, nothing at all.**

**"Have a good term," said Uncle Vernon with an even nastier smile. He left without another word. Harry turned and saw the Dursleys drive away. All three of them were laughing.**

"You left him there alone!" Ginny shrieked.

"Calm down Ginny you know harry got on the train ok." Neville reasoned with the red-head. And to the surprise of everyone Ginny suddenly turned red and smiled a little while sitting down.

**Harry's mouth went rather dry. What on earth was he going to do? He was starting to attract a lot of funny looks, because of Hedwig. He'd have to ask someone.**

**He stopped a passing guard, but didn't dare mention platform nine and three-quarters. The guard had never heard of Hogwarts and when Harry couldn't even tell him what part of the country it was in, he started to get annoyed, as though Harry was being stupid on purpose. Getting desperate, Harry asked for the train that left at eleven o'clock, but the guard said there wasn't one. In the end the guard strode away, muttering about time wasters. Harry was now trying hard not to panic. According to the large clock over the arrivals board, he had ten minutes left to get on the train to Hogwarts and he had no idea how to do it; he was stranded in the middle of a station with a trunk he could hardly lift, a pocket full of wizard money, and a large owl.**

"How on earth did he get on?" Dudley asked.

"Yeah, no kidding." Malcolm muttered.

"He got help from one coolest family ever!" Neville cheered making Ginny blush a little.

**Hagrid must have forgotten to tell him something you had to do, like tapping the third brick on the left to get into Diagon Alley. He wondered if he should get out his wand and start tapping the ticket inspector's stand between platforms nine and ten.**

**At that moment a group of people passed just behind him and he caught a few words of what they were saying.**

**" – packed with Muggles, of course –"**

**Harry swung round. The speaker was a plump woman who was talking to four boys, all with flaming red hair.**

_And a girl_ Ginny thought.

**Each of them was pushing a trunk like Harry's in front of him – and they had an owl.**

"Yes harry trust the people with the owl." Lee said in a poorly done imitation of Trelawney making Ginny and Neville laugh and the muggles to give them confused looks which were ignored.

**Heart hammering, Harry pushed his cart after them. They stopped and so did he, just near enough to hear what they were saying.**

**"Now, what's the platform number?" said the boys' mother.**

**"Nine and three-quarters!" piped a small girl, also red-headed, who was holding her hand, "Mum, can't I go... "**

Lee and Neville were barely suppressing their sniggers at Ginny's red face.

**"You're not old enough, Ginny, now be quiet. All right, Percy, you go first."**

**What looked like the oldest boy marched toward platforms nine and ten. Harry watched, careful not to blink in case he missed it – but just as the boy reached the dividing barrier between the two platforms, a large crowd of tourists came swarming in front of him and by the time the last backpack had cleared away, the boy had vanished.**

**"Fred, you next," the plump woman said.**

**"I'm not Fred, I'm George," said the boy. "Honestly, woman, you call yourself our mother? Can't you tell I'm George?"**

Ginny rolled her eyes at that.

**"Sorry, George, dear."**

**"Only joking, I am Fred," said the boy, and off he went. His twin called after him to hurry up, and he must have done so, because a second later, he had gone – but how had he done it?**

"Magic." Lee said waving his hands making the others laugh.

**Now the third brother was walking briskly toward the barrier he was almost there – and then, quite suddenly, he wasn't anywhere.**

**There was nothing else for it.**

**"Excuse me," Harry said to the plump woman.**

**"Hello, dear," she said. "First time at Hogwarts? Ron's new, too."**

**She pointed at the last and youngest of her sons. He was tall, thin, and gangling, with freckles, big hands and feet, and a long nose.**

"Yeah that's a perfect and accurate description of Ron all right." Ginny laughed.

"I'm guessing that's one of your brothers." Malcolm said.

"Yep that's Ron Harry's best friend and my youngest older brother." She smiled.

**"Yes," said Harry. "The thing is – the thing is, I don't know how to –"**

**"How to get onto the platform?" she said kindly, and Harry nodded.**

**"Not to worry," she said. "All you have to do is walk straight at the barrier between platforms nine and ten. Don't stop and don't be scared you'll crash into it, that's very important. Best do it at a bit of a run if you're nervous. Go on, go now before Ron."**

**"Er – okay," said Harry.**

**He pushed his trolley around and stared at the barrier. It looked very solid.**

"According to Ron and Harry it is." Neville joked.

**He started to walk toward it. People jostled him on their way to platforms nine and ten. Harry walked more quickly. He was going to smash right into that barrier and then he'd be in trouble – leaning forward on his cart, he broke into a heavy run – the barrier was coming nearer and nearer – he wouldn't be able to stop – the cart was out of control – he was a foot away – he closed his eyes ready for the crash –**

**It didn't come... he kept on running... he opened his eyes. A scarlet steam engine was waiting next to a platform packed with people. A sign overhead said Hogwarts Express, eleven o'clock. Harry looked behind him and saw a wrought-iron archway where the barrier had been, with the words Platform Nine and Three-Quarters on it, He had done it.**

Lee cheered loudly right in Ginny's ear causing her to jump and glare at him, and received an innocent smile in return that fooled no one.

**Smoke from the engine drifted over the heads of the chattering crowd, while cats of every color wound here and there between their legs. Owls hooted to one another in a disgruntled sort of way over the babble and the scraping of heavy trunks.**

**The first few carriages were already packed with students, some hanging out of the window to talk to their families, some fighting over seats. Harry pushed his cart off down the platform in search of an empty seat. He passed a round-faced boy who was saying, "Gran, I've lost my toad again."**

**"Oh, Neville," he heard the old woman sigh.**

Neville shook his head at the mention of his old toad that he had lost a long time ago. **(A/N: I don't remember him being mentioned in the older books so I assume he either ran away or something like that.)**

**A boy with dreadlocks was surrounded by a small crowd.**

**"Give us a look, Lee, go on."**

**The boy lifted the lid of a box in his arms, and the people around him shrieked and yelled as something inside poked out a long, hairy leg.**

"Whatever happened to the spider anyway." Neville asked.

"Don't know, I think it might still be at Hogwarts.

**Harry pressed on through the crowd until he found an empty compartment near the end of the train. He put Hedwig inside first and then started to shove and heave his trunk toward the train door. He tried to lift it up the steps but could hardly raise one end and twice he dropped it painfully on his foot.**

Three people winced in sympathy.

**"Want a hand?" It was one of the red-haired twins he'd followed through the barrier.**

**"Yes, please," Harry panted.**

**"Oy, Fred! C'mere and help!"**

**With the twins' help, Harry's trunk was at last tucked away in a corner of the compartment.**

**"Thanks," said Harry, pushing his sweaty hair out of his eyes.**

**"What's that?" said one of the twins suddenly, pointing at Harry's lightning scar.**

**"Blimey," said the other twin. "Are you –?"**

**"He is," said the first twin. "Aren't you?" he added to Harry.**

**"What?" said Harry.**

**"Harry Potter, "chorused the twins.**

**"Oh, him," said Harry. "I mean, yes, I am."**

Everyone laughed at that.

"Oh him." Lee chocked out "Priceless Harry."

**The two boys gawked at him, and Harry felt himself turning red. Then, to his relief, a voice came floating in through the train's open door.**

**"Fred? George? Are you there?"**

**"Coming, Mum."**

**With a last look at Harry, the twins hopped off the train.**

**Harry sat down next to the window where, half hidden, he could watch the red-haired family on the platform and hear what they were saying.**

"He didn't." Ginny breathed.

"Oh this will be good." Lee chuckled.

**Their mother had just taken out her handkerchief.**

**"Ron, you've got something on your nose."**

**The youngest boy tried to jerk out of the way, but she grabbed him and began rubbing the end of his nose.**

**"Mum – geroff" He wriggled free.**

**"Aaah, has ickle Ronnie got somefink on his nosie?" said one of the twins.**

**"Shut up," said Ron.**

**"Where's Percy?" said their mother.**

**"He's coming now."**

**The oldest boy came striding into sight. He had already changed into his billowing black Hogwarts robes, and Harry noticed a shiny silver badge on his chest with the letter P on it.**

"P for prat." Ginny mumbled. She knew Percy had come back but that doesn't change the fact he left in the first place.

**"Can't stay long, Mother," he said. "I'm up front, the prefects have got two compartments to themselves –"**

**"Oh, are you a prefect, Percy?" said one of the twins, with an air of great surprise. "You should have said something, we had no idea."**

**"Hang on, I think I remember him saying something about it," said the other twin. "Once –"**

**"Or twice –"**

**"A minute –"**

**"All summer –"**

"Ginny I have to say I like your brother so far." Dudley laughed receiving nods in agreement.

"Yeah Fred and George are the best."

**"Oh, shut up," said Percy the Prefect.**

**"How come Percy gets new robes, anyway?" said one of the twins.**

**"Because he's a prefect," said their mother fondly.**

"Favoritism much." Piers snorted.

"Percy always seemed to be Mum's favorite because he never caused trouble and did well in school." Ginny frowned.

**"All right, dear, well, have a good term – send me an owl when you get there."**

**She kissed Percy on the cheek and he left. Then she turned to the twins.**

**"Now, you two – this year, you behave yourselves. If I get one more owl telling me you've – you've blown up a toilet or –"**

"So that's where they got the idea." Lee said.

**"Blown up a toilet? We've never blown up a toilet."**

**"Great idea though, thanks, Mum."**

**"It's not funny. And look after Ron."**

**"Don't worry, ickle Ronniekins is safe with us."**

Ginny snorted. "Yeah, they kept Ron safe alright."

**"Shut up," said Ron again. He was almost as tall as the twins already and his nose was still pink where his mother had rubbed it.**

**"Hey, Mum, guess what? Guess who we just met on the train?"**

**Harry leaned back quickly so they couldn't see him looking.**

**"You know that black-haired boy who was near us in the station? Know who he is?"**

**"Who?"**

**"Harry Potter!"**

**Harry heard the little girl's voice.**

Ginny groaned, but kept her eyes trained on the book.

**"Oh, Mum, can I go on the train and see him, Mum, oh please..."**

"Oh the return of Fan-Girl Ginny!" Lee said causing Ginny to shoot her bat-bogey hex at him and Neville to roar with laughter. After a few minutes she took it off and had the book resumed reading.

**"You've already seen him, Ginny, and the poor boy isn't something you goggle at in a zoo. Is he really, Fred? How do you know?"**

**"Asked him. Saw his scar. It's really there – like lightning."**

**"Poor dear – no wonder he was alone, I wondered. He was ever so polite when he asked how to get onto the platform."**

**"Never mind that, do you think he remembers what You-Know-Who looks like?"**

**Their mother suddenly became very stern.**

**"I forbid you to ask him, Fred. No, don't you dare. As though he needs reminding of that on his first day at school."**

**"All right, keep your hair on."**

**A whistle sounded.**

**"Hurry up!" their mother said, and the three boys clambered onto the train. They leaned out of the window for her to kiss them good-bye, and their younger sister began to cry.**

"I didn't like being the only one left alone." Ginny explained her past actions.

**"Don't, Ginny, we'll send you loads of owls."**

**"We'll send you a Hogwarts toilet seat."**

"I never did get that." Ginny chuckled.

**"George!"**

**"Only joking, Mum."**

"You're mum seems a bit uptight." Malcolm commented.

"She had to raise seven kids, four of them being teenage boys." Ginny said, adjusting her position on the chair.

"You forgot Percy," Neville pointed out.

"No I didn't because Percy didn't get into trouble or talk back to his teachers, or so mum reminds us.

"Did Harry ever do that?" Dudley inquired.

The corner of Ginny's mouth twitched. "You could say that."

**The train began to move. Harry saw the boys' mother waving and their sister, half laughing, half crying, running to keep up with the train until it gathered too much speed, then she fell back and waved.**

**Harry watched the girl and her mother disappear as the train rounded the corner. Houses flashed past the window. Harry felt a great leap of excitement. He didn't know what he was going to – but it had to be better than what he was leaving behind.**

**The door of the compartment slid open and the youngest redheaded boy came in.**

"This lady and gentlemen is the beginning of the Golden Trio." Lee said in his commentator voice.

**"Anyone sitting there?" he asked, pointing at the seat opposite Harry. "Everywhere else is full."**

**Harry shook his head and the boy sat down. He glanced at Harry and then looked quickly out of the window, pretending he hadn't looked. Harry saw he still had a black mark on his nose.**

Everyone laughed at that comment.

**"Hey, Ron."**

**The twins were back.**

**"Listen, we're going down the middle of the train - Lee Jordan's got a giant tarantula down there."**

**"Right," mumbled Ron.**

**"Harry," said the other twin, "did we introduce ourselves? Fred and George Weasley. And this is Ron, our brother. See you later, then.**

**"Bye," said Harry and Ron. The twins slid the compartment door shut behind them.**

**"Are you really Harry Potter?" Ron blurted out.**

"Smooth." Gordon snorted.

"Yeah Ron isn't exactly the most tactful person out there, that's for sure." Neville said.

**Harry nodded.**

**"Oh – well, I thought it might be one of Fred and George's jokes," said Ron. "And have you really got – you know..."**

**He pointed at Harry's forehead.**

**Harry pulled back his bangs to show the lightning scar. Ron stared.**

**"So that's where You-Know-Who**

**"Yes," said Harry, "but I can't remember it."**

**"Nothing?" said Ron eagerly.**

The three wizards all shook their heads at that. Ron really needed to learn to be tactful.

**"Well – I remember a lot of green light, but nothing else."**

**"Wow," said Ron. He sat and stared at Harry for a few moments, then, as though he had suddenly realized what he was doing, he looked quickly out of the window again.**

**Insert eye rolls.**

**"Are all your family wizards?" asked Harry, who found Ron just as interesting as Ron found him.**

**"Er – Yes, I think so," said Ron. "I think Mom's got a second cousin who's an accountant, but we never talk about him."**

"Why don't you talk about him?" Dudley asked.

"He was bitter because he didn't have magic while everyone else does." Ginny explained.

'Oh' was all she got in reply.

**"So you must know loads of magic already."**

**The Weasleys were clearly one of those old wizarding families the pale boy in Diagon Alley had talked about.**

"Nope, they're better." Lee grinned**.**

**"I heard you went to live with Muggles," said Ron. "What are they like?"**

**"Horrible -well, not all of them. My aunt and uncle and cousin are, though. Wish I'd had three wizard brothers."**

**"Five," said Ron. For some reason, he was looking gloomy. "I'm the sixth in our family to go to Hogwarts. You could say I've got a lot to live up to. Bill and Charlie have already left - Bill was head boy and Charlie was captain of Quidditch. Now Percy's a prefect. Fred and George mess around a lot, but they still get really good marks and everyone thinks they're really funny. Everyone expects me to do as well as the others, but if I do, it's no big deal, because they did it first. You never get anything new, either, with five brothers. I've got Bill's old robes, Charlie's old wand, and Percy's old rat."**

"Oh Ron." Ginny said sadly.

"Ron always did have a bad inferiority complex." Neville said "And being friends with Harry didn't help at all."

"Because Harry was so important and famous." Dudley stated factly.

"Yeah the spotlight was always on him and not Ron and he was the youngest Weasley boy so Fred and George were always outshining while they were at school. And if you hadn't noticed Percy was Molly's favorite child so."

**Ron reached inside his jacket and pulled out a fat gray rat, which was asleep.**

**"His name's Scabbers and he's useless, he hardly ever wakes up. Percy got an owl from my dad for being made a prefect, but they couldn't aff - I mean, I got Scabbers instead."**

_Stupid useless rat_. Ginny thought glaring at the book. If hadn't been for Pettigrew Harry's parents might still be alive.

**Ron's ears went pink. He seemed to think he'd said too much, because he went back to staring out of the window.**

**Harry didn't think there was anything wrong with not being able to afford an owl. After all, he'd never had any money in his life until a month ago, and he told Ron so, all about having to wear Dudley's old clothes and never getting proper birthday presents. This seemed to cheer Ron up.**

**"Yeah great friend Potter's got there." Gordon snorted.**

**"... and until Hagrid told me, I didn't know anything about being a wizard or about my parents or Voldemort"**

**Ron gasped.**

"It's just a name." Neville groaned.

"We know Neville." Ginny said.

**"What?" said Harry.**

**"You said You-Know-Who's name!" said Ron, sounding both shocked and impressed. "I'd have thought you, of all people –"**

**"I'm not trying to be brave or anything, saying the name," said Harry, I just never knew you shouldn't. See what I mean? I've got loads to learn... I bet," he added, voicing for the first time something that had been worrying him a lot lately, "I bet I'm the worst in the class."**

**"You won't be. There's loads of people who come from Muggle families and they learn quick enough."**

**While they had been talking, the train had carried them out of London. Now they were speeding past fields full of cows and sheep. They were quiet for a time, watching the fields and lanes flick past.**

**Around half past twelve there was a great clattering outside in the corridor and a smiling, dimpled woman slid back their door and said, "Anything off the cart, dears?"**

**Harry, who hadn't had any breakfast, leapt to his feet, but Ron's ears went pink again and he muttered that he'd brought sandwiches. Harry went out into the corridor.**

**He had never had any money for candy with the Dursleys, and now that he had pockets rattling with gold and silver he was ready to buy as many Mars Bars as he could carry**

"I love Mars Bars!" Piers said.

"What are Mars Bars?" Ginny asked.

– **but the woman didn't have Mars Bars. What she did have were Bettie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, Chocolate Frogs. Pumpkin Pasties, Cauldron Cakes, Licorice Wands, and a number of other strange things Harry had never seen in his life.**

"So that's wizard candy huh?" Dudley asked. Ever sense he ate that toffee the twins dropped he was cautious about wizard candy and food.

"Yep personally I prefer chocolate frogs." Ginny said.

"Cauldron Cakes for me." Neville.

"Drooble's." Lee

**Not wanting to miss anything, he got some of everything and paid the woman eleven silver Sickles and seven bronze Knuts.**

**Ron stared as Harry brought it all back in to the compartment and tipped it onto an empty seat.**

**"Hungry, are you?"**

**"Starving," said Harry, taking a large bite out of a pumpkin pasty.**

**Ron had taken out a lumpy package and unwrapped it. There were four sandwiches inside. He pulled one of them apart and said, "She always forgets I don't like corned beef."**

"George is the one that prefers corned beef." Ginny commented.

**"Swap you for one of these," said Harry, holding up a pasty. "Go on -"**

**"You don't want this, it's all dry," said Ron. "She hasn't got much time," he added quickly, "you know, with five of us."**

**"Go on, have a pasty," said Harry, who had never had anything to share before or, indeed, anyone to share it with. It was a nice feeling, sitting there with Ron, eating their way through all Harry's pasties, cakes, and candies (the sandwiches lay forgotten).**

"So that's how they became friends." Lee laughed.

"Trust Ron to make friends with someone gave him sweets." Ginny shook her head.

**"What are these?" Harry asked Ron, holding up a pack of Chocolate Frogs. "They're not really frogs, are they?" He was starting to feel that nothing would surprise him.**

**"No," said Ron. "But see what the card is. I'm missing Agrippa."**

"I've got about three of her." Ginny said.

**"What?"**

**"Oh, of course, you wouldn't know - Chocolate Frogs have cards, inside them, you know, to collect - famous witches and wizards. I've got about five hundred, but I haven't got Agrippa or Ptolemy."**

"I've got five Ptolemy." Lee bragged.

**Harry unwrapped his Chocolate Frog and picked up the card. It showed a man's face. He wore half- moon glasses, had a long, crooked nose, and flowing silver hair, beard, and mustache. Underneath the picture was the name Albus Dumbledore. "So this is Dumbledore!" said Harry.**

**"Don't tell me you'd never heard of Dumbledore!" said Ron. "Can I have a frog? I might get Agrippa - thanks**

**Harry turned over his card and read:**

**ALBUS DUMBLEDORE**

**CURRENTLY HEADMASTER OF HOGWARTS**

_**Considered by many the greatest wizard of modern times, Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel. Professor Dumbledore enjoys chamber music and tenpin bowling.**_

"Dumbledore was always odd." Lee chuckled.

**Harry turned the card back over and saw, to his astonishment, that Dumbledore's face had disappeared.**

**"He's gone!"**

"What?!" the muggles said.

"Yeah wizard portraits move." Neville explained trying to laugh at the expression on the muggles faces

**"Well, you can't expect him to hang around all day," said Ron. "He'll be back. No, I've got Morgana again and I've got about six of her... do you want it? You can start collecting."**

**Ron's eyes strayed to the pile of Chocolate Frogs waiting to be unwrapped.**

**"Help yourself," said Harry. "But in, you know, the Muggle world, people just stay put in photos."**

**"Do they? What, they don't move at all?" Ron sounded amazed. "weird!"**

"God Ron sounded like dad for a minute there." Ginny laughed.

"Your dad has a fascination with muggles doesn't he." Dudley asked.

"Yeah he does it drives mum mad too."

**Harry stared as Dumbledore sidled back into the picture on his card and gave him a small smile. Ron was more interested in eating the frogs than looking at the Famous Witches and Wizards cards, but Harry couldn't keep his eyes off them. Soon he had not only Dumbledore and Morgana, but Hengist of Woodcroft, Alberic Grunnion, Circe, Paracelsus, and Merlin.**

"That's a pretty good start." Lee commented.

**He finally tore his eyes away from the druidess Cliodna, who was scratching her nose, to open a bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans.**

**"You want to be careful with those," Ron warned Harry. "When they say every flavor, they mean every flavor – you know, you get all the ordinary ones like chocolate and peppermint and marmalade, but then you can get spinach and liver and tripe. George reckons he had a booger- flavored one once."**

"Ugh those are some nasty flavors." Piers said.

"And those are the ones that taste like food."

**Ron picked up a green bean, looked at it carefully, and bit into a corner.**

**"Bleaaargh - see? Sprouts."**

**They had a good time eating the Every Flavor Beans. Harry got toast, coconut, baked bean, strawberry, curry, grass, coffee, sardine, and was even brave enough to nibble the end off a funny gray one Ron wouldn't touch, which turned out to be pepper.**

"He got lucky." Neville said.

"That was lucky?" Gordon asked and received three nods in return.

**The countryside now flying past the window was becoming wilder. The neat fields had gone. Now there were woods, twisting rivers, and dark green hills.**

**There was a knock on the door of their compartment and the round-faced boy Harry had passed on platform nine and three-quarters came in. He looked tearful.**

"Neville turned red and looked determinedly at the ground.

**"Sorry," he said, "but have you seen a toad at all?"**

**When they shook their heads, he wailed, "I've lost him! He keeps getting away from me!"**

"Everyone was snickering at that and Neville was shaking his head as if asking 'why'

**"He'll turn up," said Harry.**

**"Yes," said the boy miserably. "Well, if you see him..."**

**He left.**

**"Don't know why he's so bothered," said Ron. "If I'd brought a toad I'd lose it as quick as I could. Mind you, I brought Scabbers, so I can't talk."**

**The rat was still snoozing on Ron's lap.**

**"He might have died and you wouldn't know the difference," said Ron in disgust. "I tried to turn him yellow yesterday to make him more interesting, but the spell didn't work. I'll show you, look..."**

**He rummaged around in his trunk and pulled out a very battered-looking wand. It was chipped in places and something white was glinting at the end.**

"No wonder he had trouble first year, that wands not his and it's damaged." Neville exclaimed.

**"Unicorn hair's nearly poking out. Anyway"**

**He had just raised his 'wand when the compartment door slid open again. The toadless boy was back, but this time he had a girl with him. She was already wearing her new Hogwarts robes.**

"Eager much." Piers snorted but quickly shut up at the glares he was getting.

**"Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one," she said. She had a bossy sort of voice, lots of bushy brown hair, and rather large front teeth.**

"That attractive." Gordon muttered so he wasn't heard by the wizards.

"Just wait until he sees a picture of Hermione now," Neville whispered to Lee who grinned.

**"We've already told him we haven't seen it," said Ron, but the girl wasn't listening, she was looking at the wand in his hand.**

**"Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see it, then."**

**She sat down. Ron looked taken aback.**

**"Er – all right."**

**He cleared his throat.**

**"Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow."**

"I can't believe he actually listen to Fred and George." Lee laughed.

**He waved his wand, but nothing happened. Scabbers stayed gray and fast asleep.**

**"Are you sure that's a real spell?" said the girl. "Well, it's not very good, is it? I've tried a few simple spells just for practice and it's all worked for me. Nobody in my family's magic at all, it was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I mean, it's the very best school of witchcraft there is, I've heard – I've learned all our course books by heart, of course, I just hope it will be enough - I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you.**

**She said all this very fast.**

Dudley, Piers, Malcolm, and Gordon were all staring jaws dropped at the book.

"She learned all the books by heart."

"Who does that?"

**Harry looked at Ron, and was relieved to see by his stunned face that he hadn't learned all the course books by heart either.**

**"I'm Ron Weasley," Ron muttered.**

**"Harry Potter," said Harry.**

**"Are you really?" said Hermione. "I know all about you, of course - I got a few extra books. for background reading, and you're in Modern Magical History and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century."**

"Potter's in books?" Gordon sneered.

"Only in passing but yeah he's in them." Lee chuckled.

**"Am I?" said Harry, feeling dazed.**

**"Goodness, didn't you know, I'd have found out everything I could if it was me," said Hermione. "Do either of you know what house you'll be in? I've been asking around, and I hope I'm in Gryffindor, it sounds by far the best; I hear Dumbledore himself was in it, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad... Anyway, we'd better go and look for Neville's toad. You two had better change, you know, I expect we'll be there soon."**

**And she left, taking the toadless boy with her.**

**"Whatever house I'm in, I hope she's not in it," said Ron.**

Ginny, Neville, and Lee all started laughing.

**"What's so funny?" Dudley asked.**

**"You'll just have to wait and see."**

**He threw his wand back into his trunk. "Stupid spell - George gave it to me, bet he knew it was a dud."**

**"What house are your brothers in?" asked Harry.**

**"Gryffindor," said Ron. Gloom seemed to be settling on him again. "Mom and Dad were in it, too. I don't know what they'll say if I'm not. I don't suppose Ravenclaw would be too bad, but imagine if they put me in Slytherin."**

**"That's the house Vol-, I mean, You-Know-Who was in?"**

**"Yeah," said Ron. He flopped back into his seat, looking depressed.**

**"You know, I think the ends of Scabbers' whiskers are a bit lighter," said Harry, trying to take Ron's mind off houses. "So what do your oldest brothers do now that they've left, anyway?"**

**Harry was wondering what a wizard did once he'd finished school.**

**"Charlie's in Romania studying dragons,**

"You have a brother that works with dragons?" Dudley asked amazed.

"Yeah it's pretty cool he's covered in burns though so people are pretty intimidated by him at first but you won't find a nicer guy." Neville said.

"That's true." Ginny said.

**and Bill's in Africa doing something for Gringotts," said Ron. "Did you hear aboutGringotts? It's been all over the Daily Prophet, but I don't suppose you get that with the Muggles - someone tried to rob a high security vault."**

**Harry stared.**

**"Really? What happened to them?"**

**"Nothing, that's why it's such big news. They haven't been caught. My dad says it must've been a powerful Dark wizard to get round Gringotts, but they don't think they took anything, that's what's odd. 'Course, everyone gets scared when something like this happens in case You-Know-Who's behind it."**

_Oh he was more involved then we realized if the rumors about Harry's first year are true._ Lee thought.

**Harry turned this news over in his mind. He was starting to get a prickle of fear every time You- Know-Who was mentioned. He supposed this was all part of entering the magical world, but it had been a lot more comfortable saying "Voldemort" without worrying.**

**"What's your Quidditch team?" Ron asked.**

**"Er - I don't know any," Harry confessed.**

**"What!" Ron looked dumbfounded. "Oh, you wait, it's the best game in the world -" And he was off, explaining all about the four balls and the positions of the seven players, describing famous games he'd been to with his brothers and the broomstick he'd like to get if he had the money. He was just taking Harry through the finer points of the game when the compartment door slid open yet again, but it wasn't Neville the toadless boy, or Hermione Granger this time.**

"Who can it be this time?"

**Three boys entered, and Harry recognized the middle one at once: it was the pale boy from Madam Malkin's robe shop.**

"Ugh not this prat again." Ginny moaned

**He was looking at Harry with a lot more interest than he'd shown back in Diagon Alley.**

"Of course he did." Neville snorted.

**"Is it true?" he said. "They're saying all down the train that Harry Potter's in this compartment. So it's you, is it?"**

**"Yes," said Harry. He was looking at the other boys. Both of them were thickset and looked extremely mean. Standing on either side of the pale boy, they looked like bodyguards.**

**"Oh, this is Crabbe and this is Goyle," said the pale boy carelessly, noticing where Harry was looking. "And my name's Malfoy, Draco Malfoy."**

"And the name is Bond, James Bond." Dudley said making his friends laugh.

"Who?" Neville asked.

"It's a muggle movie." Dudley explained.

**Ron gave a slight cough, which might have been hiding a snigger. Draco Malfoy looked at him.**

**"Think my name's funny, do you? No need to ask who you are. My father told me all the Weasleys have red hair, freckles, and more children than they can afford."**

"Arse." Ginny muttered.

**He turned back to Harry. "You'll soon find out some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter. You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there."**

**He held out his hand to shake Harry's, but Harry didn't take it.**

"He really tried to be friends with harry after he acted like that towards your brother?" Dudley asked .

"Yeah Malfoy's not the best thinker out there."

**"I think I can tell who the wrong sort are for myself, thanks," he said coolly.**

**Draco Malfoy didn't go red, but a pink tinge appeared in his pale cheeks.**

"Serves him right annoying little ferret." Ginny mumbled.

**"I'd be careful if I were you, Potter," he said slowly. "Unless you're a bit politer you'll go the same way as your parents. They didn't know what was good for them, either. You hang around with riffraff like the Weasleys and that Hagrid, and it'll rub off on you."**

Ginny, Neville, and Lee were all glaring at the book and much to their surprise so was Dudley.

**Both Harry and Ron stood up.**

**"Say that again," Ron said, his face as red as his hair.**

**"Oh, you're going to fight us, are you?" Malfoy sneered.**

**"Unless you get out now," said Harry, more bravely than he felt, because Crabbe and Goyle were a lot bigger than him or Ron.**

"Yep a Gryffindor through and through." Ginny smiled.

**"But we don't feel like leaving, do we, boys? We've eaten all our food and you still seem to have some."**

**Goyle reached toward the Chocolate Frogs next to Ron - Ron leapt forward, but before he'd so much as touched Goyle, Goyle let out a horrible yell.**

"What happened?" Dudley asked.

**Scabbers the rat was hanging off his finger, sharp little teeth sunk deep into Goyle's knuckle –**

**Everyone laughed at that.**

**Crabbe and Malfoy backed away as Goyle swung Scabbers round and round, howling, and when Scabbers finally flew off and hit the window, all three of them disappeared at once. Perhaps they thought there were more rats lurking among the sweets, or perhaps they'd heard footsteps, because a second later, Hermione Granger had come in.**

"Does she ever leave them alone?" Piers sneered but was once again silenced by glares.

**"What has been going on?" she said, looking at the sweets all over the floor and Ron picking up Scabbers by his tail.**

**I think he's been knocked out," Ron said to Harry. He looked closer at Scabbers. "No – I don't believe it – he's gone back to sleep-"**

**And so he had.**

"All that rat ever did was sleep."

**"You've met Malfoy before?"**

**Harry explained about their meeting in Diagon Alley.**

**"I've heard of his family," said Ron darkly. "They were some of the first to come back to our side after You-Know-Who disappeared. Said they'd been bewitched. My dad doesn't believe it. He says Malfoy's father didn't need an excuse to go over to the Dark Side." He turned to Hermione. "Can we help you with something?"**

"It's hard to believe they hated each other when they first met." Ginny smiled.

"Not really you've seen how much they fight." Neville reasoned.

**"You'd better hurry up and put your robes on, I've just been up to the front to ask the conductor, and he says we're nearly there. You haven't been fighting, have you? You'll be in trouble before we even get there!"**

**"Scabbers has been fighting, not us," said Ron, scowling at her. "Would you mind leaving while we change?"**

**"All right – I only came in here because people outside are behaving very childishly, racing up and down the corridors," said Hermione in a sniffy voice. "And you've got dirt on your nose, by the way, did you know?"**

Everyone laughed at that.

**Ron glared at her as she left. Harry peered out of the window. It was getting dark. He could see mountains and forests under a deep purple sky. The train did seem to be slowing down.**

**He and Ron took off their jackets and pulled on their long black robes. Ron's were a bit short for him, you could see his sneakers underneath them.**

"Does Potter notice everything ?" piers asked.

**A voice echoed through the train: "We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately."**

**Harry's stomach lurched with nerves and Ron, he saw, looked pale under his freckles. They crammed their pockets with the last of the sweets and joined the crowd thronging the corridor.**

**The train slowed right down and finally stopped. People pushed their way toward the door and out on to a tiny, dark platform. Harry shivered in the cold night air. Then a lamp came bobbing over the heads of the students, and Harry heard a familiar voice: "Firs' years! Firs' years over here! All right there, Harry?"**

"Hagrid's such a great friend to have." Neville grinned.

**Hagrid's big hairy face beamed over the sea of heads.**

**"C'mon, follow me – any more firs' years? Mind yer step, now! Firs' years follow me!"**

**Slipping and stumbling, they followed Hagrid down what seemed to be a steep, narrow path. It was so dark on either side of them that Harry thought there must be thick trees there. Nobody spoke much. Neville, the boy who kept losing his toad, sniffed once or twice.**

"Over observant prat." Neville muttered while smiling.

**"Ye' all get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," Hagrid called over his shoulder, "jus' round this bend here."**

**There was a loud "Oooooh!"**

**The three Hogwarts students were smiling remembering the first time they ever saw Hogwarts.**

**The narrow path had opened suddenly onto the edge of a great black take. Perched atop a high mountain on the other side, its windows sparkling in the starry sky, was a vast castle with many turrets and towers.**

"A castle you guys go to school in a castle?" Gordon asked amazed.

"We sure do!" lee exclaimed.

**"No more'n four to a boat!" Hagrid called, pointing to a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore. Harry and Ron were followed into their boat by Neville and Hermione. "Everyone in?" shouted Hagrid, who had a boat to himself. "Right then – FORWARD!"**

**And the fleet of little boats moved off all at once, gliding across the lake, which was as smooth as glass. Everyone was silent, staring up at the great castle overhead. It towered over them as they sailed nearer and nearer to the cliff on which it stood.**

**"Heads down!" yelled Hagrid as the first boats reached the cliff**

"Dennis didn't listen to Hagrid apparently." Ginny laughed.

**; they all bent their heads and the little boats carried them through a curtain of ivy that hid a wide opening in the cliff face. They were carried along a dark tunnel, which seemed to be taking them right underneath the castle, until they reached a kind of underground harbor, where they clambered out onto rocks and pebbles.**

**"Oy, you there! Is this your toad?" said Hagrid, who was checking the boats as people climbed out of them.**

**"Trevor!" cried Neville blissfully, holding out his hands. Then they clambered up a passageway in the rock after Hagrid's lamp, coming out at last onto smooth, damp grass right in the shadow of the castle.**

**They walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the huge, Oak front door.**

**"Everyone here? You there, still got yer toad?"**

**Hagrid raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door.**

" And that's the chapter." Lee said checking the book.

"What's the next chapter?" Dudley asked.

**"The Sorting Hat."**

**Well everyone I hope you enjoyed the chapter sorry about the long wait I hadn't realized it had been so long since I updated I'll try to make sure it's not such a wait between chapters anymore.**

**Well I can't wait to read your review so keep em' coming**

**Movie quote:**

**'Indeed. I can avoid being seen if I wish, but to disappear entirely, that is a rare gift.'**


	8. Break 1

**Hey Everyone I'm back! Well I got a new computer so here's the next chapter enjoy!**  
**Sorry about such a long wait but I'm already halfway done the next chapter so hopefully by next Thursday i'll have the next chapter posted. **

* * *

Dudley's POV

Before the book can begin reading the next chapter I hear a knock at the door.

"Are you expecting anyone?" Neville asked me

"I don't think so let me go see who it is." I said getting out of my chair heading to door. I open it to see a redhead about Lee's age who looks a lot like Ginny. Now that I think about it, it's one of the twins who came to get Harry a few summer ago the one that gave me one of those sweets that made my tongue grow. I pale just thinking about it.

"Ah Dudley, good to see you again." He declared with a dramatic bow.

I open my mouth to respond but nothing comes out

"Well are going to let me in?" He questions. Unable to speak I step aside and let him in and follow him to the living room

"Fred what are you doing here?" Ginny ask (A/N: that's right folks Fred is alive! You're welcome)

"Well I heard that you were reading books about harry so I thought I'd join you." Fred explained

"Okay then." Ginny said "Let's get reading."

"Wait before we read any more can we eat? I'm starving." Gordon complained.

"Yeah reading sounds much better that reading about Potter." Piers agreed

I looked at the clock to see that it was getting pretty late and I was getting hungry

"Okay then." Ginny sighed "We can take a hour break then back to reading."

We walked into the kitchen and all sat down

"Well ginger get to cooking" Gordon said putting his hands behind his and leaning back in his seat. I automatically knew this was the wrong thing to say to Ginny because her hands went to hips and her eyes narrowed

"Oh and what makes you think I'm going to be cooking?" she demanded

"Because you're the woman and it's your job" Gordon replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. I mentally groaned he's just asking for another broken nose.

"Ok moving on. Let's eat." Fred said glaring at Gordon

"Good idea." I breathed greatful that he had changed the subject

"So who's cooking?" Piers demanded

"No one has to cook watch this." Lee said and raised his wand gave a wave, and out of nowhere the biggest buffet I have ever seen appeared out of nowhere. It had everything ; steak, pot roast, mashed potatoes, turkeys, dinner rolls and everything else you can possibly imagine and without hesitation I dived in and started piling my plate , I know I'm supposed to be on a diet but what mum and dad know won't hurt them.

"Man this stuff is amazing." Malcolm said through a mouth full of steak

"And I thought it was bad when Ron did that." Ginny said a look of disgust crossing her face

"So feel like catching me up on the chapters I missed?" Fred asked

"Okay, well chapter one was the day that Harry came here to live with the Dursley's when he was baby."

"That was all chapter one was?" Fred asked incredulously

"Yep just a lot of background info mainly. Then chapter two jumped forward ten year to Dudley's 11th birthday party. We found out why Harry was so skinny, turns out his loving family starved and neglected him for a majority of his life." Ginny said the last part nonchalantly but there was an undertone of hatred threading through the sentence.

"What!?" Fred shouted "I mean I knew they didn't like him and the bars on the window second year but…" Fred trailed off going silent "What else did you put him through." He spat the last part out at me and before I stammer out an answer Neville did for me.

"He slept in a cupboard under the stairs until he got his Hogwarts letter." He sighed obviously sad for my cousin. Why can't I have friends like that, friends who care? I thought to myself as I saw that Harry's friend all looked sad at that bit of information

"And it turns out Ron was his first friend he ever had." Lee said

"What?"

"Yeah turns out Dudley and his gang here beat up anyone at their school who was nice to him so he had no friends until Hogwarts." Lee explained to his friend causing Fred to glare at me and me to shrink down into my seat, or at least try to

"And then his letter came and his uncle did everything in his power to keep it from happening and then they left went on the run trying to get away from the letters until Hagrid found them in this broken down house in the middle of the sea. Then he gave Harry his letter then gave Dudley here a pigs tail." Lee said making Fred laugh so hard he fell out of his chair

"And then he went to Diagon Alley met malfoy."

"Wait he met Malfoy?" Fred asked in disbelief. "And here I thought George and I were the first to ever meet him. This is gonna cause Ol' Freddie some heartache.

"Wait, I thought you were Fred?" Malcolm asked quizzicall, his head tilted slightly and a dinner roll half way to his mouth.

"Don't listen to him," Ginny said with an eye roll. "But, yeah, and hated him right away." Ginny laughed

"Atta boy Harry good judgment of character he has." Fred said sounding like a wise college professor making everyone laugh

"And that's about it." Neville finished

"So onto the next chapter." I said standing

"Oh do we have to?" Malcolm whined from seat next to me "I don't want to keep reading about Potter."

"Yeah who cares about that spineless scrawny wimp?" Piers sneered

"Well too bad." Ginny snapped pulling her wand out "We're going to read whether you like it or not!"

"All right **Chapter 7 The Sorting Hat**"

**Movie Quote: **

**"This is a pen!"**


	9. The Sorting Hat

**Hello my lovely readers! Well here's the next chapter hope you like it once again thank you to my beta for without this story would suck. So enjoy! Oh and chapter dedication for guessing last chapter's quote goes to Jbowes98 and I know some of you aren't happy about Fred being back but he is here to stay so. Oh and it was also brought to my attention that I broke one of the rule of the Harry Potter universe by how I brought the food, see in my mind I saw it more of not him creating or conjuring the food as molly making it before Fred left and him summoning it I guess when I wrote that part I was trying to avoid making it seem like he was conjuring it but I guess I didn't so my apologies**

**The Sorting Hat**

The door swung open at once. A tall, black-haired witch in emerald-green robes stood there. She had a very stern face and Harry's first thought was that this was not someone to cross.

"Very accurate description," Fred snorted.

"He says she's not someone to cross but he has nearly gave her a heart attack multiple times." Ginny sighed making the other laugh.  
**  
"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall," said Hagrid.**

"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here."

She pulled the door wide. The entrance hall was so big you could have fit the whole of the Dursleys' house in it.

Dudley whistled "That's pretty big."****

"Yeah Hogwarts is huge." Ginny nodded "You tend to get lost a lot your first year."

**The stone walls were lit with flaming torches like the ones at Gringotts, the ceiling was too high to make out, and a magnificent marble staircase facing them led to the upper floors.**

They followed Professor McGonagall across the flagged stone floor. Harry could hear the drone of hundreds of voices from a doorway to the right — the rest of the school must already be here — but Professor McGonagall showed the first years into a small, empty chamber off the hall. They crowded in, standing rather closer together than they would usually have done, peering about nervously.

"Everyone's like that before the sorting, even if they don't admit it." Neville smiled making all the people who had gone to Hogwarts nod in agreement.  
**  
"Welcome to Hogwarts," said Professor McGonagall. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room.**

"The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rulebreaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours.

"The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting."

"She gives the same speech every year." Lee groaned.

Fred nodded in mock sadness "No imagination whatsoever." Wiping a fake tear from his eye causing Ginny to smack him upside the head.****

Her eyes lingered for a moment on Neville's cloak, which was fastened under his left ear,

"How did you manage that?" Piers asked

"No idea honestly, I just was just an awkward kid growing up."****

and on Ron's smudged nose. Harry nervously tried to flatten his hair.

"Not going to work." Fred said in a sing-songy voice****

"I shall return when we are ready for you," said Professor McGonagall. "Please wait quietly."

She left the chamber. Harry swallowed.

"How exactly do they sort us into houses?" he asked Ron.

"Some sort of test, I think. Fred said it hurts a lot, but I think he was joking."

"Does he believe everything you tell him?" Malcolm snorted.

"No he was just nervous." Fred said quickly defending his brother.****

Harry's heart gave a horrible jolt. A test? In front of the whole school? But he didn't know any magic yet —what on earth would he have to do? He hadn't expected something like this the moment they arrived. He looked around anxiously and saw that everyone else looked terrified, too. No one was talking much except Hermione Granger, who was whispering very fast about all the spells she'd learned and wondering which one she'd need.

"Know-it-all." Gordon muttered causing Ginny to glare at him**.**

Harry tried hard not to listen to her. He'd never been more nervous, never, not even when he'd had to take a school report home to the Dursleys saying that he'd somehow turned his teacher's wig blue.

"When did he do that?" Ginny asked Dudley.

"I believe it was third year, the teacher was scolding harry for not getting a good grade on his spelling test and all of a sudden her hair turned blue it was actually pretty funny," he smiled.  
**  
**"How much trouble did he get into with your dad for that?" Fred snapped. Ginny may be trying to be nice for Harry's sake but he wasn't. He'll never forget the bars on the windows and how paled Harry went when he heard his uncle's voice.

"He was locked in the cupboard for two weeks and I'm pretty sure dad bruised his ribs when he tossed Harry in there." Dudley sighed sadly looking down and the floor. There was a strained silence until Neville decided to make the book start reading again.  
**  
He kept his eyes fixed on the door. Any second now, Professor McGonagall would come back and lead him to his doom.**

Then something happened that made him jump about a foot in the air — several people behind him screamed.

"What the —?"

He gasped. So did the people around him. About twenty ghosts had just streamed through the back wall.

"G-g-g-ghost." Piers stammered paling at the idea.

"Yep. Hogwarts is full of them." Lee said jovially.

**Pearly-white and slightly transparent, they glided across the room talking to one another and hardly glancing at the first years. They seemed to be arguing. What looked like a fat little monk was saying: "Forgive and forget, I say, we ought to give him a second chance —"**

"My dear Friar, haven't we given Peeves all the chances he deserves? He gives us all a bad name and you know, he's not really even a ghost — I say, what are you all doing here?"

"Same conversation they have every year." Neville shook his head.

"What conversation?" Dudley ask.

"It's a debate on whether or not to let Peeves join the feast."

"Who Peeves?" Malcolm asked.

"A poltergeist that terrorizes Hogwarts." Ginny explained.

"What's a poltergeist?" Gordon asked.

"a poltergeist is a ghost that likes to cause trouble Peeves is known to prank and tease first years." Fred said smiling thinking of all the pranks he and George caused at Hogwarts.

**A ghost wearing a ruff and tights had suddenly noticed the first years.**

Nobody answered.

"New students!" said the Fat Friar, smiling around at them. "About to be Sorted, I suppose?"

A few people nodded mutely.

"Hope to see you in Hufflepuff!" said the Friar. "My old house, you know."

"Move along now," said a sharp voice. "The Sorting Ceremony's about to start."

Professor McGonagall had returned. One by one, the ghosts floated away through the opposite wall.

"Now, form a line," Professor McGonagall told the first years, "and follow me."

Feeling oddly as though his legs had turned to lead, Harry got into line behind a boy with sandy hair, with Ron behind him, and they walked out of the chamber, back across the hall, and through a pair of double doors into the Great Hall.

Harry had never even imagined such a strange and splendid place. It was lit by thousands and thousands of candles that were floating in midair over four long tables, where the rest of the students were sitting. These tables were laid with glittering golden plates and goblets. At the top of the hall was another long table where the teachers were sitting. Professor McGonagall led the first years up here, so that they came to a halt in a line facing the other students, with the teachers behind them. The hundreds of faces staring at them looked like pale lanterns in the flickering candlelight. Dotted here and there among the students, the ghosts shone misty silver. Mainly to avoid all the staring eyes, Harry looked upward and saw a velvety black ceiling dotted with stars. He heard Hermione whisper, "Its bewitched to look like the sky ou

Yeah it's actually pretty cool." Lee smiled.

"What about when it rains or snows." Piers asked.

"It fades away before it can touch the students." So we don't get wet and the wind doesn't blow everything around?"

**It was hard to believe there was a ceiling there at all, and that the Great Hall didn't simply open on to the heavens.**

"A very accurate description."

**Harry quickly looked down again as Professor McGonagall silently placed a four-legged stool in front of the first years. On top of the stool she put a pointed wizard's hat. This hat was patched and frayed and extremely dirty. Aunt Petunia wouldn't have let it in the house.**

Everyone snickered at that.

"Sounds like your mum Duds." Malcolm said between snickers. Dudley just laughed and nodded his head in agreement.

**Maybe they had to try and get a rabbit out of it,**

"Why would we have to pull a rabbit out?" Neville asked curiously

"It's a muggle magician trick." Ginny explained "What harry explained it to me and dad one time." She explained when she saw all the puzzled looks in the room

**Harry thought wildly, that seemed the sort of thing — noticing that everyone in the hall was now staring at the hat, he stared at it, too. For a few seconds, there was complete silence. Then the hat twitched. A rip near the brim opened wide like a mouth — and the hat began to sing:**

"It sings!?" Dudley and his gang chorus

"Yep, quite nicely too I might add," Lee said flippantly.

_**"Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,**_

_**But don't judge on what you see,**_

_**I'll eat myself if you can find**_

_**A smarter hat than me.**_

_**You can keep your bowlers black,**_

_**Your top hats sleek and tall,**_

_**For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat**_

_**And I can cap them all.**_

_**There's nothing hidden in your head**_

_**The Sorting Hat can't see,**_

_**So try me on and I will tell you**_

_**Where you ought to be.**_

_**You might belong in Gryffindor,**_

_**Where dwell the brave at heart,**_

_**Their daring, nerve, and chivalry**_

_**Set Gryffindors apart;**_

_**You might belong in Hufflepuff,**_

_**Where they are just and loyal,**_

_**Those patient Hufflepuffs are true**_

_**And unafraid of toil;**_

_**Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,**_

_**if you've a ready mind,**_

_**Where those of wit and learning,**_

_**Will always find their kind;**_

_**Or perhaps in Slytherin**_

_**You'll make your real friends,**_

_**Those cunning folk use any means**_

_**To achieve their ends.**_

_**So put me on! Don't be afraid!**_

_**And don't get in a flap!**_

_**You're in safe hands (though I have none)**_

_**For I'm a Thinking Cap!"**_

**The whole hall burst into applause as the hat finished its song. It bowed to each of the four tables and then became quite still again.**

**"So we've just got to try on the hat!" Ron whispered to Harry. "I'll kill Fred, he was going on about wrestling a troll."**

"Nope that's to become friends with a Miss Hermione Granger." Neville chuckled

**Harry smiled weakly. Yes, trying on the hat was a lot better than having to do a spell, but he did wish they could have tried it on without everyone watching. The hat seemed to be asking rather a lot; Harry didn't feel brave or quick-witted or any of it at the moment. If only the hat had mentioned a house for people who felt a bit queasy, that would have been the one for him.**

"Then everyone would be in that house harri-kins" Fred said in a mock serious voice making Ginny smack him upside the head

**Professor McGonagall now stepped forward holding a long roll of parchment.**

**"When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," she said. "Abbott, Hannah!"**

Neville smiled at the mention of his sort of girlfriend

**A pink-faced girl with blonde pigtails stumbled out of line, put on the hat, which fell right down over her eyes, and sat down. A moment's pause —**

**"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat.**

"Perfect house for her too." Ginny smiled

"Yeah it really is she was so excited to be sorted into Hufflepuff." Neville said

**The table on the right cheered and clapped as Hannah went to sit down at the Hufflepuff table. Harry saw the ghost of the Fat Friar waving merrily at her.**

**"Bones, Susan!"**

**"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat again, and Susan scuttled off to sit next to Hannah.**

**"Boot, Terry!"**

**"RAVENCLAW!"**

**The table second from the left clapped this time; several Ravenclaws stood up to shake hands with Terry as he joined them.**

**"Brocklehurst, Mandy" went to Ravenclaw too, but "Brown, Lavender" became the first new Gryffindor, and the table on the far left exploded with cheers; Harry could see Ron's twin brothers catcalling.**

Ginny smiled sadly at the mention of the Gryffindor who had died in the battle by wounds caused by Greyback.

**"Bulstrode, Millicent" then became a Slytherin. Perhaps it was Harry's imagination, after all he'd heard about Slytherin, but he thought they looked like an unpleasant lot.**

"Because they are." Fred said as if most obvious thing in the world.

**He was starting to feel definitely sick now. He remembered being picked for teams during gym at his old school. He had always been last to be chosen, not because he was no good, but because no one wanted Dudley to think they liked him.**

Dudley flinched at all the glares he was getting.

**"Finch-Fletchley, Justin!"**

**"HUFFLEPUFF!"**

**Sometimes, Harry noticed, the hat shouted out the house at once, but at others it took a little while to decide. "Finnigan, Seamus," the sandy-haired boy next to Harry in the line, sat on the**

**stool for almost a whole minute before the hat declared him a Gryffindor.**

**"Granger, Hermione!"**

**Hermione almost ran to the stool and jammed the hat eagerly on her head.**

**"GRYFFINDOR!" shouted the hat. Ron groaned.**

"How they ever get together?" Fred mumbled to Ginny

"No idea honestly." She mumbled back.

**A horrible thought struck Harry, as horrible thoughts always do when you're very nervous. What if he wasn't chosen at all? What if he just sat there with the hat over his eyes for ages, until Professor McGonagall jerked it off his head and said there had obviously been a mistake and he'd better get back on the train?**

"Such a pessimist" Ginny groaned.

**When Neville Longbottom, the boy who kept losing his toad, was called, he fell over on his way to the stool. The hat took a long time to decide with Neville. When it finally shouted, "GRYFFINDOR," Neville ran off still wearing it, and had to jog back amid gales of laughter to give it to "MacDougal, Morag."**

"What took so long for the hat to decide for you." Dudley ask asked ignoring his friends snickering at the boy.

"It couldn't decide between Hufflepuff and Gryffindor but in the end it went with Gryffindor because it said I my bravery won out over everything."

**Malfoy swaggered forward when his name was called and got his wish at once: the hat had barely touched his head when it screamed, "SLYTHERIN!"**

**Malfoy went to join his friends Crabbe and Goyle, looking pleased with himself."**

Ginny snorted; of course Malfoy would be pleased about being in Slytherin.

**There weren't many people left now. "Moon"… , "Nott"… , "Parkinson"… , then a pair of twin girls, "Patil" and "Patil"… , then "Perks, Sally-Anne"… , and then, at last —**

**"Potter, Harry!"**

**As Harry stepped forward, whispers suddenly broke out like little hissing fires all over the hall.**

**"Potter, did she say?"**

**"The Harry Potter?"**

**The last thing Harry saw before the hat dropped over his eyes was the hall full of people craning to get a good look at him. Next second he was looking at the black inside of the hat. He waited.**

**"Hmm," said a small voice in his ear. "Difficult. Very difficult. Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind either. There's talent, A my goodness, yes — and a nice thirst to prove yourself, now that's interesting… So where shall I put you?"**

"So Harry could have gone into any of those houses?" Dudley asked shocked.

"It would appear so which makes sense I guess." Ginny answered.

"Yeah he does have qualities that fit all the houses but his bravery does win over everything else most of the time." Fred admitted.

Piers snorted in amusement.

"What's so funny." Ginny asked knowing she's not going to like the answer.

"It's just that none of that really sounds like potter." He explained.

"Yeah Potter's nothing but a coward who runs away at the first sign of trouble, I mean how many times did he run from us?" Malcolm sneered. Fred had to pull Ginny back into her seat to stop from attacking the two muggles.

**Harry gripped the edges of the stool and thought, Not Slytherin, not Slytherin.**

**"Not Slytherin, eh?" said the small voice. "Are you sure? You could be great, you know, it's all here in your head, and Slytherin will help you on the way to greatness, no doubt about that — no? Well, if you're sure — better be GRYFFINDOR!"**

Fred, Lee, and Neville all started cheering and Ginny laughed.

**Harry heard the hat shout the last word to the whole hall. He took off the hat and walked shakily toward the Gryffindor table. He was so relieved to have been chosen and not put in Slytherin, he hardly noticed that he was getting the loudest cheer yet. Percy the Prefect got up and shook his hand vigorously, while the Weasley twins yelled, "We got Potter! We got Potter!" Harry sat down opposite the ghost in the ruff he'd seen earlier. The ghost patted his arm, giving Harry the sudden, horrible feeling he'd just plunged it into a bucket of ice-cold water.**

Ginny, Neville, Lee, and Fred all shuddered at the accurate description.

**He could see the High Table properly now. At the end nearest him sat Hagrid, who caught his eye and gave him the thumbs up. Harry grinned back. And there, in the center of the High Table, in a large gold chair, sat Albus Dumbledore. Harry recognized him at once from the card he'd gotten out of the Chocolate Frog on the train. Dumbledore's silver hair was the only thing in the whole hall that shone as brightly as the ghosts. Harry spotted Professor Quirrell, too, the nervous young man from the Leaky Cauldron. He was looking very peculiar in a large purple turban.**

Ginny glared at the book at the mention of the turban knowing exactly what was behind it.

**And now there were only three people left to be sorted. "Thomas, Dean," a Black boy even taller than Ron, joined Harry at the Gryffindor table. "Turpin, Lisa," became a Ravenclaw and then it was Ron's turn. He was pale green by now. Harry crossed his fingers under the table and a second later the hat had shouted, "GRYFFINDOR!"**

Fred, Lee and Neville cheered again.

**Harry clapped loudly with the rest as Ron collapsed into the chair next to him.**

**"Well done, Ron, excellent," said Percy Weasley pompously across Harry as "Zabini, Blaise," was made a Slytherin. Professor McGonagall rolled up her scroll and took the Sorting Hat away.**

**Harry looked down at his empty gold plate. He had only just realized how hungry he was. The pumpkin pasties seemed ages ago.**

"It always does." Fred nodded along with all the other boys making Ginny roll her eyes.

**Albus Dumbledore had gotten to his feet. He was beaming at the students, his arms opened wide, as if nothing could have pleased him more than to see them all there.**

**"Welcome," he said. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!**

**"Thank you!"**

**He sat back down. Everybody clapped and cheered. Harry didn't know whether to laugh or not.**

**"Is he — a bit mad?" he asked Percy uncertainly.**

"Yes." Was chorused around the room.

**"Mad?" said Percy airily. "He's a genius! Best wizard in the world! But he is a bit mad, yes. Potatoes, Harry?"**

**Harry's mouth fell open. The dishes in front of him were now piled with food. He had never seen so many things he liked to eat on one table: roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops and lamb chops, sausages, bacon and steak, boiled potatoes, roast potatoes, fries, Yorkshire pudding, peas, carrots, gravy, ketchup, and, for some strange reason, peppermint humbugs.**

All the boys were drooling at the description of all the food.

**The Dursleys had never exactly starved Harry, but he'd never been allowed to eat as much as he liked. Dudley had always taken anything that Harry really wanted, even if It made him sick. Harry piled his plate with a bit of everything except the peppermints and began to eat. It was all delicious.**

**"That does look good," said the ghost in the ruff sadly, watching Harry cut up his steak.**

**"Can't you —?"**

**"I haven't eaten for nearly five hundred years," said the ghost. "I don't need to, of course, but one does miss it. I don't think I've introduced myself? Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington at your service. Resident ghost of Gryffindor Tower."**

"Nick!" cried all the Gryffindors

**"I know who you are!" said Ron suddenly. "My brothers told me about you — you're Nearly Headless Nick!"**

"We also told him that he hated being called that" Fred laughed.

**"I would prefer you to call me Sir Nicholas de Mimsy —" the ghost began stiffly, but sandy-haired Seamus Finnigan interrupted.**

**"Nearly Headless? How can you be nearly headless?"**

**Sir Nicholas looked extremely miffed, as if their little chat wasn't going at all the way he wanted.**

**"Like this," he said irritably. He seized his left ear and pulled. His whole head swung off his neck and fell onto his shoulder as if it was on a hinge. Someone had obviously tried to behead him, but not done it properly.**

"His heads hanging on by an inch!" Dudley cried horrified.

"Which is why we call him Nearly-Headless'.

**Looking pleased at the stunned looks on their faces, Nearly Headless Nick flipped his head back onto his neck, coughed, and said, "So — new Gryffindors! I hope you're going to help us win the house championship this year? Gryffindors have never gone so long without winning. Slytherins have got the cup six years in a row! The Bloody Baron's becoming almost unbearable — he's the Slytherin ghost."**

**Harry looked over at the Slytherin table and saw a horrible ghost sitting there, with blank staring eyes, a gaunt face, and robes stained with silver blood. He was right next to Malfoy who, Harry was pleased to see, didn't look too pleased with the seating arrangements.**

**"How did he get covered in blood?" asked Seamus with great interest.**

**"I've never asked," said Nearly Headless Nick delicately.**

"I know!" Ginny said smugly.

"What?"

How?" asked Fred and Neville.

"Harry told me." Was the simple reply

**When everyone had eaten as much as they could, the remains of the food faded from the plates, leaving them sparkling clean as before. A moment later the desserts appeared. Blocks of ice cream in every flavor you could think of, apple pies, treacle tarts, chocolate éclairs and jam doughnuts, trifle, strawberries, Jell-O, rice pudding…**

**As Harry helped himself to a treacle tart, the talk turned to their families.**

**"I'm half-and-half," said Seamus. "Me dad's a Muggle. Mom didn't tell him she was a witch 'til after they were married. Bit of a nasty shock for him."**

**The others laughed.**

"That could have gone way worse couldn't it?" Dudley asked sadly

"Yeah his dad could of left or stayed and made his life hell because of it."

**"What about you, Neville?" said Ron.**

**"Well, my gran brought me up and she's a witch," said Neville, "but the family thought I was all-Muggle for ages. My Great Uncle Algie kept trying to catch me off my guard and force some magic out of me — he pushed me off the end of Blackpool pier once, I nearly drowned — but nothing happened until I was eight. Great Uncle Algie came round for dinner, and he was hanging me out of an upstairs window by the ankles when my Great Auntie Enid offered him a meringue and he accidentally let go. But I bounced — all the way down the garden and into the road. They were all really pleased, Gran was crying, she was so happy. And you should have seen their faces when I got in here — they thought I might not be magic enough to come, you see. Great Uncle Algie was so pleased he bought me my toad."**

"Nice family you got there." Piers snorted making Neville glare at him

**On Harry's other side, Percy Weasley and Hermione were talking about lessons ("I do hope they start right away, there's so much to learn, I'm particularly interested in Transfiguration, you know, turning something into something else, of course, it's supposed to be very difficult —"; "You'll be starting small, just matches into needles and that sort of thing — ").**

**Harry, who was starting to feel warm and sleepy, looked up at the High Table again. Hagrid was drinking deeply from his goblet. Professor McGonagall was talking to Professor Dumbledore. Professor Quirrell, in his absurd turban, was talking to a teacher with greasy black hair, a hooked nose, and sallow skin.**

"And enter the dungeon bat." Lee muttered

**It happened very suddenly. The hook-nosed teacher looked past Quirrell's turban straight into Harry's eyes — and a sharp, hot pain shot across the scar on Harry's forehead.**

"What?" Dudley asked "I didn't realize the scars could hurt."

"They can't but Harry's scar is different so yeah it hurts him at times and as the book go on it'll become more frequent." Ginny explained.

**"Ouch!" Harry clapped a hand to his head.**

**"What is it?" asked Percy.**

**"N-nothing."**

"That's his answer for a lot of things isn't it?"

"It sure is."

**The pain had gone as quickly as it had come. Harder to shake off was the feeling Harry had gotten from the teacher's look — a feeling that he didn't like Harry at all.**

**"Who's that teacher talking to Professor Quirrell?" he asked Percy.**

**"Oh, you know Quirrell already, do you? No wonder he's looking so nervous, that's Professor Snape. He teaches Potions, but he doesn't want to — everyone knows he's after Quirrell's job. Knows an awful lot about the Dark Arts, Snape."**

"You could say that again." Neville snorted

**Harry watched Snape for a while, but Snape didn't look at him again.**

**At last, the desserts too disappeared, and Professor Dumbledore got to his feet again. The hall fell silent.**

**"Ahem — just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you.**

**"First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well."**

**Dumbledore's twinkling eyes flashed in the direction of the Weasley twins.**

"Not for long it doesn't."

"Why not?" Dudley asked.

"Because Harry, Ron, and Hermione have been in there more than me and George."

**"I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors.**

**"Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of the term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch.**

**"And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death."**

**Harry laughed, but he was one of the few who did.**

**"He's not serious?" he muttered to Percy.**

**"Must be," said Percy, frowning at Dumbledore. "It's odd, because he usually gives us a reason why we're not allowed to go somewhere — the forest's full of dangerous beasts, everyone knows that. I do think he might have told us prefects, at least."**

"He sure seems to think highly of himself." Gordon sneered.

Ginny opened her mouth to argue but had to agree her brother was a prat back then.

**"And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!" cried Dumbledore. Harry noticed that the other teachers' smiles had become rather fixed.**

**Dumbledore gave his wand a little flick, as if he was trying to get a fly off the end, and a long golden ribbon flew out of it, which rose high above the tables and twisted itself, snakelike, into words.**

**"Everyone pick their favorite tune," said Dumbledore, "and off we go!"**

**And the school bellowed:**

_**"Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts,**_

_**Teach us something please,**_

_**Whether we be old and bald**_

_**Or young with scabby knees,**_

_**Our heads could do with filling**_

_**With some interesting stuff,**_

_**For now they're bare and full of air,**_

_**Dead flies and bits of fluff,**_

_**So teach us things worth knowing,**_

_**Bring back what we've forgot,**_

_**just do your best, we'll do the rest,**_

_**And learn until our brains all rot."**_

**Everybody finished the song at different times. At last, only the Weasley twins were left singing along to a very slow funeral march. Dumbledore conducted their last few lines with his wand and when they had finished, he was one of those who clapped loudest.**

Everyone laughed at that making Fred get up and take a bow.

**"Ah, music," he said, wiping his eyes. "A magic beyond all we do here! And now, bedtime. Off you trot!"**

**The Gryffindor first years followed Percy through the chattering crowds, out of the Great Hall, and up the marble staircase. Harry's legs were like lead again, but only because he was so tired and full of food. He was too sleepy even to be surprised that the people in the portraits along the corridors whispered and pointed as they passed, or that twice Percy led them through doorways hidden behind sliding panels and hanging tapestries. They climbed more staircases, yawning and dragging their feet, and Harry was just wondering how much farther they had to go when they came to a sudden halt.**

"Why would he stop?"

"Because of Peeves most likely."

**A bundle of walking sticks was floating in midair ahead of them, and as Percy took a step toward them they started throwing themselves at him.**

**"Peeves," Percy whispered to the first years. "A poltergeist." He raised his voice, "Peeves — show yourself."**

**A loud, rude sound, like the air being let out of a balloon, answered.**

**"Do you want me to go to the Bloody Baron?"**

They was a chorus of groans.

"What? What's wrong?" Malcolm asked.

"He played the baron cared to early it won't work now." Lee explained.

**There was a pop, and a little man with wicked, dark eyes and a wide mouth appeared, floating cross-legged in the air, clutching the walking sticks.**

**"Oooooooh!" he said, with an evil cackle. "Ickle Firsties! What fun!"**

**He swooped suddenly at them. They all ducked.**

**"Go away, Peeves, or the Baron'll hear about this, I mean it!" barked Percy.**

**Peeves stuck out his tongue and vanished, dropping the walking sticks on Neville's head. They heard him zooming away, rattling coats of armor as he passed.**

**"You want to watch out for Peeves," said Percy, as they set off again. "The Bloody Baron's the only one who can control him, he won't even listen to us prefects. Here we are."**

**At the very end of the corridor hung a portrait of a very fat woman in a pink silk dress.**

**"Password?" she said.**

**"Caput Draconis," said Percy, and the portrait swung forward to reveal a round hole in the wall. They all scrambled through it — Neville needed a leg up — and found themselves in the Gryffindor common room, a cozy, round room full of squashy armchairs.**

"I love our common room" Neville smiled to himself.

**Percy directed the girls through one door to their dormitory and the boys through another. At the top of a spiral staircase — they were obviously in one of the towers — they found their beds at last: five four-posters hung with deep red, velvet curtains. Their trunks had already been brought up. Too tired to talk much, they pulled on their pajamas and fell into bed.**

**"Great food, isn't it?" Ron muttered to Harry through the hangings. "Get off, Scabbers! He's chewing my sheets."**

"Useless rat." Ginny muttered to herself.

**Harry was going to ask Ron if he'd had any of the treacle tart, but he fell asleep almost at once.**

**Perhaps Harry had eaten a bit too much, because he had a very strange dream. He was wearing Professor Quirrell's turban, which kept talking to him, telling him he must transfer to Slytherin at once, because it was his destiny. Harry told the turban he didn't want to be in Slytherin; it got heavier and heavier; he tried to pull it off but it tightened painfully — and there was Malfoy, laughing at him as he struggled with it — then Malfoy turned into the hook-nosed teacher, Snape, whose laugh became high and cold — there was a burst of green light and Harry woke, sweating and shaking.**

"Harry and his weird dreams." Fred chuckled.

**He rolled over and fell asleep again, and when he woke next day, he didn't remember the dream at all.**

"I'd want to forget that dream too." Nodded Lee.

"All right that's it for this chapter." Neville said "Next chapter is called **The Potions Master**.

**Ok so that was the chapter. Please review, they really are my motivation to keep this story going **

**Ok movie quote:**

"**Whatever happened to chivalry? Does it only exist in 80's movies? I want John Cusack holding a boombox outside my window. I wanna ride off on a lawnmower with Patrick Dempsey. I want Jake from Sixteen Candles waiting outside the church for me. I want Judd Nelson thrusting his fist into the air because he knows he got me. Just once I want my life to be like an 80's movie, preferably one with a really awesome musical number for no apparent reason. But no, no, John Hughes did not direct my life."**


	10. The Potions Master

**I do not own Harry Potter nor do I make any money off this. All rights to J.K. Rowling and her publishing companies. This fanfic is edited by Wolfe luv, if you have questions about the story, please message her.**

**Wolfgirl263:Hey everyone so sorry about the long wait but reality was taking up all my time I had a lot going on. The disclaimer above id from my beta Wolfe luv and everything she said is true and I would like to thank her for editing my awful grammar and creating this story in the first place.**

** Chapter dedication goes to:** **Jbowes98 for the movie quote**

**Also a shout out to: Halunygin for pming me and reminding me that it had been so long since I'd posted a chapter so big thanks to her! Or him *awkward silence cricket chirping* Anyway so here you go **

**Oh one more thing I'll keep my poll open for the next 3 chapter then I'll close it so be sure to vote! I'll keep you updated on who's winning at the bottom of each chapter**

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**CHAPTER EIGHT**

**The Potions Master**

**"There, look."**

**"Where?"**

**"Next to the tall kid with the red hair."**

**"Wearing the glasses?"**

**"Did you see his face?"**

**"Did you see his scar?"**

"And so it begins." Ginny groaned.

"What are you talking about?" Dudley asked.

"The pointing, whispering, and staring at Harry and his scar." Lee said from his perch on Neville's armchair.

"Wait so all the junk about Potter being famous is true?" Malcolm asked. "You weren't just pulling our leg?"

"No we weren't Harry really is famous and he hates it." Fred explained. "Now hopefully that will get through your thick heads but that's pushing our luck."

**Whispers followed Harry from the moment he left his dormitory the next day. People lining up outside classrooms stood on tiptoe to get a look at him, or doubled back to pass him in the corridors again, staring. Harry wished they wouldn't, because he was trying to concentrate on finding his way to were a hundred and forty-two staircases at Hogwarts:**

"How did he know that?" Dudley asked wide eyed.

"Hermione told us at dinner and I guess he remembered." Neville shrugged. "She did it all the time at the beginning of our first year."

**wide, sweeping ones; narrow, rickety ones; some that led somewhere different on a Friday; some with a vanishing step halfway up that you had to remember to jump. Then there were doors that wouldn't open unless you asked politely, or tickled them in exactly the right place, and doors that weren't really doors at all, but solid walls just pretending. It was also very hard to remember where anything was, because it all seemed to move around a lot. The people in the portraits kept going to visit each other, and Harry was sure the coats of armor could walk.**

**The ghosts didn't help, either. It was always a nasty shock when one of them glided suddenly through a door you were trying to open. Nearly Headless Nick was always happy to point new Gryffindors in the right direction,**

"Yeah Nick is definitely the most helpful ghost at Hogwarts." Fred said.

"At least compared to the ghosts that float right through you," Neville shuddered.

**but Peeves the Poltergeist was worth two locked doors and a trick staircase if you met him when you were late for class. He would drop wastepaper baskets on your head, pull rugs from under your feet, pelt you with bits of chalk, or sneak up behind you, invisible, grab your nose, and screech, "GOT YOUR CONK!"**

**Even worse than Peeves, if that was possible, was the caretaker, Argus Filch. Harry and Ron managed to get on the wrong side of him on their very first morning. Filch found them trying to force their way through a door that unluckily turned out to be the entrance to the out-of-bounds corridor on the third floor. He wouldn't believe they were lost, was sure they were trying to break into it on purpose, and was threatening to lock them in the dungeons when they were rescued by Professor Quirrell, who was passing.**

"Yeah 'just passing' Ginny snorted making the others look at her with confused looks which she waved off.

**Filch owned a cat called Mrs. Norris, a scrawny, dust-colored creature with bulging, lamp like eyes just like Filch's. She patrolled the corridors alone. Break a rule in front of her, put just one toe out of line, and she'd whisk off for Filch, who'd appear, wheezing, two seconds later. Filch knew the secret passageways of the school better than anyone (except perhaps the Weasley twins) and could pop up as suddenly as any of the ghosts. The students all hated him, and it was the dearest ambition of many to give Mrs. Norris a good kick.**

"I did it." All the Hogwarts student said even (surprisingly) Neville.

**And then, once you had managed to find them, there were the classes themselves. There was a lot more to magic, as Harry quickly found out, than waving your wand and saying a few funny words.**

"Meaning there's more to it than what muggle portray in movies and books." Dudley commented.

"Exactly." Ginny agreed.

**They had to study the night skies through their telescopes every Wednesday at midnight and learn the names of different stars and the movements of the planets. Three times a week they went out to the greenhouses behind the castle to study Herbology, with a dumpy little witch called Professor Sprout, where they learned how to take care of all the strange plants and fungi, and found out what they were used for. Easily the most boring class was History of Magic, which was the only one taught by a ghost. Professor Binns had been very old indeed when he had fallen asleep in front of the staff room fire and got up next morning to teach, leaving his body behind him. Binns droned on and on while they scribbled down names and dates, and got Emetic the Evil and Uric the Oddball mixed up.**

**Professor Flitwick, the Charms teacher, was a tiny little wizard who had to stand on a pile of books to see over his desk. At the start of their first class he took the roll call, and when he reached Harry's name he gave an excited squeak and toppled out of sight.**

Everyone laughed at that none more loudly than Neville who was actually there

**Professor McGonagall was again different. Harry had been quite right to think she wasn't a teacher to cross. Strict and clever, she gave them a talking-to the moment they sat down in her first class.**

"McGonagall may be strict and give speeches about trouble but she is a trouble maker at heart and has a soft spot for them." Fred chuckled.

"So very true, this explains why your sorry butt wasn't expelled in your first year." Ginny teased causing everyone to laugh and Fred to mock-glare at her.

"Yeah, McGonagall may seem a bit like a by-the-book professor but she has a heart of gold," Neville said.

**"Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts," she said. "Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned."**

**Then she changed her desk into a pig and back again. They were all very impressed and couldn't wait to get started, but soon realized they weren't going to be changing the furniture into animals for a long time. After taking a lot of complicated notes, they were each given a match and started trying to turn it into a needle. By the end of the lesson, only Hermione Granger had made any difference to her match; Professor McGonagall showed the class how it had gone all silver and pointy and gave Hermione a rare smile.**

"That is impressive it takes a lot to impress her." Lee said

**The class everyone had really been looking forward to was Defense Against the Dark Arts, but Quirrell's lessons turned out to be a bit of a joke.**

"All of our teachers were a bit of joke except for Lupin." Ginny snorted.

"Who?" Piers asked.

"Teacher in Harry's third year." Dudley explained.

Ginny looked over in surprise.

"I pay attention to Harry when he talks," Dudley said defensively/embarrassedly.

**His classroom smelled strongly of garlic, which everyone said was to ward off a vampire he'd met in Romania and was afraid would be coming back to get him one of these days. His turban, he told them, had been given to him by an African prince as a thank-you for getting rid of a troublesome zombie, but they weren't sure they believed this story. For one thing, when Seamus Finnigan asked eagerly to hear how Quirrell had fought off the zombie, Quirrell went pink and started talking about the weather; for another, they had noticed that a funny smell hung around the turban, and the Weasley twins insisted that it was stuffed full of garlic as well, so that Quirrell was protected wherever he went.**

"If only it was simple." Ginny muttered.

**Harry was very relieved to find out that he wasn't miles behind everyone else. Lots of people had come from Muggle families and, like him, hadn't had any idea that they were witches and wizards. There was so much to learn that even people like Ron didn't have much of a head start.**

Fred snorted. "Ron a head start on someone academically, as if."

**Friday was an important day for Harry and Ron. They finally managed to find their way down to the Great Hall for breakfast without getting lost once.**

Fred, Lee and Neville started cheering.

**"What have we got today?" Harry asked Ron as he poured sugar on his porridge.**

**"Double Potions with the Slytherins," said Ron. "Snape's Head of Slytherin House. They say he always favors them — we'll be able to see if it's true."**

"It's true." Chorused the four Gryffindors

"Is it that bad?" Dudley asked and received only nods in return.

**"Wish McGonagall favored us," said Harry. Professor McGonagall was head of Gryffindor House, but it hadn't stopped her from giving them a huge pile of homework the day before.**

**Just then, the mail arrived. Harry had gotten used to this by now, but it had given him a bit of a shock on the first morning, when about a hundred owls had suddenly streamed into the Great Hall during breakfast, circling the tables until they saw their owners, and dropping letters and packages onto their laps.**

"All muggleborns are shocked the first time the see the mail arrive." Ginny explained while she shifted into a more comfortable position.

**Hedwig hadn't brought Harry anything so far. She sometimes flew in to nibble his ear and have a bit of toast before going off to sleep in the owlery with the other school owls. This morning, however, she fluttered down between the marmalade and the sugar bowl and dropped a note onto Harry's plate. Harry tore it open at once. It said, in a very untidy scrawl:**

**_Dear Harry,_**

**_I know you get Friday afternoons off, so would you like to come and have a cup of tea with me around three? I want to hear all about your first week. Send us an answer back with Hedwig._**

**_Hagrid_**

**Harry borrowed Ron's quill, scribbled Yes, please, see you later on the back of the note, and sent Hedwig off again.**

**It was lucky that Harry had tea with Hagrid to look forward to, because the Potions lesson turned out to be the worst thing that had happened to him so far.**

**At the start-of-term banquet, Harry had gotten the idea that Professor Snape disliked him. By the end of the first Potions lesson, he knew he'd been wrong. Snape didn't dislike Harry**

"What?" Neville asked confused.

**he hated him.**

"Oh! Well that makes more sense."

**Potions lessons took place down in one of the dungeons. It was colder here than up in the main castle, and would have been quite creepy enough without the pickled animals floating in glass jars all around the walls.**

**Snape, like Flitwick, started the class by taking the roll call, and like Flitwick, he paused at Harry's name.**

**"Ah, Yes," he said softly, "Harry Potter. Our new — celebrity."**

Ginny glared at the book git.

**Draco Malfoy and his friends Crabbe and Goyle sniggered behind their hands. Snape finished calling the names and looked up at the class. His eyes were black like Hagrid's, but they had none of Hagrid's warmth. They were cold and empty and made you think of dark tunnels.**

**"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potionmaking," he began. He spoke in barely more than a whisper, but they caught every word — like Professor McGonagall, Snape had the gift of keeping a class silent without effort. "As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses… I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death — if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."**

"Nice speech." Piers snorted.

"No kidding" Dudley mumbled.

**More silence followed this little speech. Harry and Ron exchanged looks with raised eyebrows. Hermione Granger was on the edge of her seat and looked desperate to start proving that she wasn't a dunderhead.**

The four Gryffindors rolled their eyes fondly at this while Dudley and his friends rolled theirs in annoyance.

**"Potter!" said Snape suddenly. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"**

**Powdered root of what to an infusion of what? Harry glanced at Ron, who looked as stumped as he was; Hermione's hand had shot into the air.**

**"I don't know, sir," said Harry.**

**Snape's lips curled into a sneer.**

"No good biased git." Lee muttered glaring at the book, Fred being the only one that heard him nodded his head in agreement. Snape was always meaner to harry than any other student put together.

**"Tut, tut — fame clearly isn't everything."**

**He ignored Hermione's hand.**

**"Let's try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"**

**Hermione stretched her hand as high into the air as it would go without her leaving her seat, but Harry didn't have the faintest idea what a bezoar was. He tried not to look at Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle, who were shaking with laughter.**

**"I don't know, sir."**

**"Thought you wouldn't open a book before coming, eh, Potter?" Harry forced himself to keep looking straight into those cold eyes. He had looked through his books at the Dursleys', but did Snape expect him to remember everything in One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi?**

"No he just wanted to embarrass you." Neville rolled his eyes.

**Snape was still ignoring Hermione's quivering hand.**

**"What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?"**

**At this, Hermione stood up, her hand stretching toward the dungeon ceiling.**

**"I don't know," said Harry quietly. "I think Hermione does, though, why don't you try her?"**

Ginny smiled fondly, "he never knew when to get his mouth shut, still doesn't actually."

**A few people laughed; Harry caught Seamus's eye, and Seamus winked. Snape, however, was not pleased.**

**"Sit down," he snapped at Hermione. "For your information, Potter, asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death. A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons. As for monkshood and wolfsbane, they are the same plant, which also goes by the name of aconite. Well? Why aren't you all copying that down?"**

"Because you didn't tell them to." Snapped Dudley he really didn't like the way this Snape guy was treating his cousin.

**There was a sudden rummaging for quills and parchment. Over the noise, Snape said, "And a point will be taken from Gryffindor House for your cheek, Potter."**

**Things didn't improve for the Gryffindors as the Potions lesson continued. Snape put them all into pairs and set them to mixing up a simple potion to cure boils. He swept around in his long black cloak, watching them weigh dried nettles and crush snake fangs, criticizing almost everyone except Malfoy, whom he seemed to like. He was just telling everyone to look at the perfect way Malfoy had stewed his horned slugs when clouds of acid green smoke and a loud hissing filled the dungeon. Neville had somehow managed to melt Seamus's cauldron into a twisted blob, and their potion was seeping across the stone floor, burning holes in people's shoes. Within seconds, the whole class was standing on their stools while Neville, who had been drenched in the potion when the cauldron collapsed, moaned in pain as angry red boils sprang up all over his arms and legs.**

"Ouch that had to hurt." Dudley winced with his friends nodding in agreement.

"It did."

**"Idiot boy!" snarled Snape,**

"What the hell kind of teacher insults his students?" inquired Malcolm.

"An unprofessional one."

**clearing the spilled potion away with one wave of his wand. "I suppose you added the porcupine quills before taking the cauldron off the fire?"**

**Neville whimpered as boils started to pop up all over his nose.**

**"Take him up to the hospital wing," Snape spat at Seamus. Then he rounded on Harry and Ron, who had been working next to Neville.**

**"You — Potter — why didn't you tell him not to add the quills? Thought he'd make you look good if he got it wrong, did you? That's another point you've lost for Gryffindor."**

"He was working on his own potion you bastard!"shrieked Ginny.

**This was so unfair that Harry opened his mouth to argue, but Ron kicked him behind their cauldron.**

**"Don't push it," he muttered, "I've heard Snape can turn very nasty."**

**As they climbed the steps out of the dungeon an hour later, Harry's mind was racing and his spirits were low. He'd lost two points for Gryffindor in his very first week —why did Snape hate him so much?**

"That's what I'd like to know," Lee muttered.

**"Cheer up," said Ron, "Snape's always taking points off Fred and George. Can I come and meet Hagrid with you?"**

**At five to three they left the castle and made their way across the grounds. Hagrid lived in a small wooden house on the edge of the forbidden forest. A crossbow and a pair of galoshes were outside the front door.**

**When Harry knocked they heard a frantic scrabbling from inside and several booming barks. Then Hagrid's voice rang out, saying, "Back, Fang —back."**

**Hagrid's big, hairy face appeared in the crack as he pulled the door open.**

**"Hang on," he said. "Back, Fang."**

**He let them in, struggling to keep a hold on the collar of an enormous black boarhound.**

**There was only one room inside. Hams and pheasants were hanging from the ceiling, a copper kettle was boiling on the open fire, and in the corner stood a massive bed with a patchwork quilt over it.**

**"Make yerselves at home," said Hagrid, letting go of Fang, who bounded straight at Ron and started licking his ears. Like Hagrid, Fang was clearly not as fierce as he looked.**

"Fangs a big coward." Lee informed the people that hadn't seen or meet fang "he's a sweet dog though everyone loves him."

**"This is Ron," Harry told Hagrid, who was pouring boiling water into a large teapot and putting rock cakes onto a plate.**

**"Another Weasley, eh?" said Hagrid, glancing at Ron's freckles. "I spent half me life chasin' yer twin brothers away from the forest."**

**The rock cakes were shapeless lumps with raisins that almost broke their teeth, but Harry and Ron pretended to be enjoying them as they told Hagrid all about their first lessons. Fang rested his head on Harry's knee and drooled all over his robes.**

Ginny grimaced "I hate it when he does that."

**Harry and Ron were delighted to hear Hagrid call Filch "that old git."**

**"An' as fer that cat, Mrs. Norris, I'd like ter introduce her to Fang sometime. D'yeh know, every time I go up ter the school, she follows me everywhere? Can't get rid of her — Filch puts her up to it."**

**Harry told Hagrid about Snape's lesson. Hagrid, like Ron, told Harry not to worry about it, that Snape liked hardly any of the students.**

**"But he seemed to really hate me."**

**"Rubbish!" said Hagrid. "Why should he?"**

**Yet Harry couldn't help thinking that Hagrid didn't quite meet his eyes when he said that.**

"Hagrid really is a terrible liar isn't he?" Dudley chuckled.

"Yeah you can trust Hagrid to always have your back but never trust him with your secrets." Lee chuckled.

**"How's yer brother Charlie?" Hagrid asked Ron. "I liked him a lot — great with animals."**

Fred snorted "Great subject change Hagrid."

**Harry wondered if Hagrid had changed the subject on purpose. While Ron told Hagrid all about Charlie's work with dragons, Harry picked up a piece of paper that was lying on the table under the tea cozy. It was a cutting from the Daily Prophet:**

**_GRINGOTTS BREAK-IN LATEST_**

**_Investigations continue into the break-in at Gringotts on 31 July, widely believed to be the work of Dark wizards or witches unknown. Gringotts goblins today insisted that nothing had been taken. The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied the same day._**

**_"But we're not telling you what was in there, so keep your noses out if you know what's good for you," said a Gringotts spokesgoblin this afternoon._**

**Harry remembered Ron telling him on the train that someone had tried to rob Gringotts, but Ron hadn't mentioned the date.**

**"Hagrid!" said Harry, "that Gringotts break-in happened on my birthday! It might've been happening while we were there!"**

Dudley frowned, "that's an odd coincidence."

**There was no doubt about it, Hagrid definitely didn't meet Harry's eyes this time. He grunted and offered him another rock cake. Harry read the story again. The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied earlier that same day. Hagrid had emptied vault seven hundred and thirteen, if you could call it emptying, taking out that grubby little package. Had that been what the thieves were looking for?**

**As Harry and Ron walked back to the castle for dinner, their pockets weighed down with rock cakes they'd been too polite to refuse, Harry thought that none of the lessons he'd had so far had given him as much to think about as tea with Hagrid. Had Hagrid collected that package just in time? Where was it now? And did Hagrid know something about Snape that he didn't want to tell Harry?**

"Yes there is." Ginny muttered

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**Ok so onto my poll results so far:**

**All three: 56% with 9 votes **

**Harry's sister: 31% with 5 vote **

**Sirius's son/daughter and Harry's sister 12% with 2 votes**

**Remus's son/daughter: 0 **

**So as you can see my new story is about potter twins and I'll be working on both stories at the same time and updating on the same day **

**Movie quote:**

**Got a pound of coke. **

**We are trying to show them a good time, not ruin their fucking lives. **

** Pound of marijuana? **

**Best party ever! **

**Booyah!**


	11. The Midnight Duel

**Hey everyone well here's the chapter I hope you like it! So first a big thank you and shout out like always to my beta reader Wolfe luv. And chapter dedication goes to: Jbowes98**

**Disclaimer: I do not own harry potter J.K Rowing does**

**Enjoy!**

**Chapter Nine**

**The Midnight Duel**

**Harry had never believed he would meet a boy he hated more than Dudley, but that was before he met Draco Malfoy.**

Dudley winced at that, he didn't realize his cousin had hated him so much, not that he could blame him but still.

**Still, first-year Gryffindors only had Potions with the Slytherins, so they didn't have to put up with Malfoy much. Or at least, they didn't until they spotted a notice pinned up in the Gryffindor common room that made them all groan. Flying lessons would be starting on Thursday — and Gryffindor and Slytherin would be learning together.**

"Why do they stick them together if the professors know they don't get along?" Dudley asked

"Because the professors think if they stick us together enough we'll start to get along." Ginny explained rolling her eyes.

**"Typical," said Harry darkly. "Just what I always wanted. To make a fool of myself on a broomstick in front of Malfoy."**

"And he ended up doing the exact opposite." Neville laughed.

"What do you mean?" Gordon asked disappointed he didn't have a embarrassing moment to use against Potter to steal his girlfriend with.

"You'll see." Fred grinned.

**He had been looking forward to learning to fly more than anything else.**

"Everyone looks forward to Quidditch." Lee said.

**"You don't know that you'll make a fool of yourself," said Ron reasonably. "Anyway, I know Malfoy's always going on about how good he is at Quidditch, but I bet that's all talk."**

"It is." The Hogwarts student chorused.

**Malfoy certainly did talk about flying a lot. He complained loudly about first years never getting on the house Quidditch teams and told long, boastful stories that always seemed to end with him narrowly escaping Muggles in helicopters. He wasn't the only one, though: the way Seamus Finnigan told it, he'd spent most of his childhood zooming around the countryside on his broomstick. Even Ron would tell anyone who'd listen about the time he'd almost hit a hang glider on Charlie's old broom.**

Fred snorted "Yeah and what he forgot to mention was how much trouble he got in by mum and Charlie when they found out."

Ginny laughed "Yeah he couldn't sit for a week."

**Everyone from wizarding families talked about Quidditch constantly. Ron had already had a big argument with Dean Thomas, who shared their dormitory, about soccer.**

"This must be an Americanized version." Piers noted.

"What makes you say that?" Dudley asked

"Because only in America do they call it soccer." He said.

**Ron couldn't see what was exciting about a game with only one ball where no one was allowed to fly. Harry had caught Ron prodding Dean's poster of West Ham soccer team, trying to make the players move.**

**Neville had never been on a broomstick in his life, because his grandmother had never let him near one. Privately, Harry felt she'd had good reason, because Neville managed to have an extraordinary number of accidents even with both feet on the ground.**

Neville winced remembering the flying lesson "and I still keep both my feet on the ground out of the air."

**Hermione Granger was almost as nervous about flying as Neville was. This was something you couldn't learn by heart out of a book — not that she hadn't tried. At breakfast on Thursday she bored them all stupid with flying tips she'd gotten out of a library book called Quidditch through the Ages. Neville was hanging on to her every word, desperate for anything that might help him hang on to his broomstick later,**

"Does he always have to be so bloody observant?" Neville joked making everyone laugh.

**but everybody else was very pleased when Hermione's lecture was interrupted by the arrival of the mail.**

**Harry hadn't had a single letter since Hagrid's note, something that Malfoy had been quick to notice, of course. Malfoy's eagle owl was always bringing him packages of sweets from home, which he opened gloatingly at the Slytherin table.**

"Prat." Ginny mumbled.

**A barn owl brought Neville a small package from his grandmother. He opened it excitedly and**

**showed them a glass ball the size of a large marble, which seemed to be full of white smoke.**

**"It's a Remembrall!" he explained.**

"What a rememberall?" Malcolm asked

"it's a device wizards use to help them remember to do things."

**"Gran knows I forget things — this tells you if there's something you've forgotten to do. Look, you hold it tight like this and if it turns red — oh…" His face fell, because the Remembrall had suddenly glowed scarlet, "… you've forgotten something…"**

**Neville was trying to remember what he'd forgotten when Draco Malfoy, who was passing the Gryffindor table, snatched the Remembrall out of his hand.**

**Harry and Ron jumped to their feet. They were half hoping for a reason to fight Malfoy, but Professor McGonagall, who could spot trouble quicker than any teacher in the school, was there in a flash.**

"Of course she does." Lee smirked "She taught the Marauders."

"Who?" Dudley and his friends asked

"The Marauders were a group of pranksters before out time." Fred explained "Though we never found out there actual names."

"I know their names." Ginny said airily.

"How did you learn their names?" Lee asked incredulously.

"Harry told me."

**"What's going on?"**

**"Malfoy's got my Remembrall, Professor."**

**Scowling, Malfoy quickly dropped the Remembrall back on the table.**

**"Just looking," he said, and he sloped away with Crabbe and Goyle behind him.**

"Sure you were." Neville snorted

**At three-thirty that afternoon, Harry, Ron, and the other Gryffindors hurried down the front steps onto the grounds for their first flying lesson. It was a clear, breezy day, and the grass rippled under their feet as they marched down the sloping lawns toward a smooth, flat lawn on the opposite side of the grounds to the forbidden forest, whose trees were swaying darkly in the distance.**

**The Slytherins were already there, and so were twenty broomsticks lying in neat lines on the ground. Harry had heard Fred and George Weasley complain about the school brooms, saying that some of them started to vibrate if you flew too high, or always flew slightly to the left.**

"They do." Fred muttered.

**Their teacher, Madam Hooch, arrived. She had short, gray hair, and yellow eyes like a hawk.**

"Like an actual hawk?" Gordon asked and received nods in reply.

**"Well, what are you all waiting for?" she barked. "Everyone stand by a broomstick. Come on, hurry up."**

**Harry glanced down at his broom. It was old and some of the twigs stuck out at odd angles.**

**"Stick out your right hand over your broom," called Madam Hooch at the front, "and say 'Up!'"**

**"UP" everyone shouted.**

**Harry's broom jumped into his hand at once,**

**Fred's eyes widen "He was a natural from the beginning." He murmured.**

**but it was one of the few that did. Hermione Granger's had simply rolled over on the ground, and Neville's hadn't moved at all. Perhaps brooms, like horses, could tell when you were afraid, thought Harry; there was a quaver in Neville's voice that said only too clearly that he wanted to keep his feet on the ground.**

"I did," Neville muttered.

**Madam Hooch then showed them how to mount their brooms without sliding off the end, and walked up and down the rows correcting their grips. Harry and Ron were delighted when she told Malfoy he'd been doing it wrong for years.**

The Gryffindors smirked at this.

**"Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard," said Madam Hooch. "Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet, and then come straight back down by leaning forward slightly. On my whistle — three — two —"**

**But Neville, nervous and jumpy and frightened of being left on the ground, pushed off hard before the whistle had touched Madam Hooch's lips.**

**"Come back, boy!" she shouted, but Neville was rising straight up like a cork shot out of a bottle — twelve feet — twenty feet. Harry saw his scared white face look down at the ground falling away, saw him gasp, slip sideways off the broom and —**

**WHAM — a thud and a nasty crack and Neville lay face down on the grass in a heap.**

Everyone winced at that.

"Ouch," Ginny winced.

"I didn't know you got hurt that day." Fred said

"Well after what happens next my incident was pretty much forgotten." Neville explained and Fred nodded

"What happens next?" Dudley asked and received no answer.

**His broomstick was still rising higher and higher, and started to drift lazily toward the forbidden forest and out of sight.**

**Madam Hooch was bending over Neville, her face as white as his.**

**"Broken wrist," Harry heard her mutter. "Come on, boy — it's all right, up you get."**

**She turned to the rest of the class.**

**"None of you is to move while I take this boy to the hospital wing! You leave those brooms where they are or you'll be out of Hogwarts before you can say 'Quidditch.' Come on, dear."**

The Hogwarts students snorted at this.

**Neville, his face tear-streaked, clutching his wrist, hobbled off with Madam Hooch, who had her arm around him.**

**No sooner were they out of earshot than Malfoy burst into laughter.**

**"Did you see his face, the great lump?"**

**The other Slytherins joined in.**

**"Shut up, Malfoy," snapped Parvati Patil.**

"Wow thanks Parvati." Neville mumbled

**"Ooh, sticking up for Longbottom?" said Pansy Parkinson, a hard-faced Slytherin girl. "Never thought you'd like fat little crybabies, Parvati."**

"And I never thought you'd like arrogant, rich, prats who go running to daddy all the all the time" Ginny muttered.

**"Look!" said Malfoy, darting forward and snatching something out of the grass. "It's that stupid thing Longbottom's gran sent him."**

**The Remembrall glittered in the sun as he held it up.**

**"Give that here, Malfoy," said Harry quietly. Everyone stopped talking to watch.**

**Malfoy smiled nastily.**

"Can he smile any other way?" Neville snorted much to the amusement of the others.

**"I think I'll leave it somewhere for Longbottom to find — how about — up a tree?"**

**"Give it here!" Harry yelled, but Malfoy had leapt onto his broomstick and taken off. He hadn't been lying, he could fly well. Hovering level with the topmost branches of an oak he called, "Come and get it, Potter!"**

**Harry grabbed his broom.**

**"No!" shouted Hermione Granger. "Madam Hooch told us not to move — you'll get us all into trouble."**

"Oh come on Hermione let him get it back." Fred cried.

**Harry ignored her. Blood was pounding in his ears. He mounted the broom and kicked hard against the ground and up, up he soared; air rushed through his hair, and his robes whipped out behind him — and in a rush of fierce joy he realized he'd found something he could do without being taught — this was easy, this was wonderful. He pulled his broomstick up a little to take it even higher and heard screams and gasps of girls back on the ground and an admiring whoop from Ron.**

"Wait so Potter can fly?" Gordon asked in shock.

"Better than anyone I've ever seen." Ginny smirked.

**He turned his broomstick sharply to face Malfoy in midair. Malfoy looked stunned.**

"He probably wasn't expecting Harry to be so good." Fred said.

**"Give it here," Harry called, "or I'll knock you off that broom!"**

**"Oh, yeah?" said Malfoy, trying to sneer, but looking worried.**

**Harry knew, somehow, what to do. He leaned forward and grasped the broom tightly in both hands, and it shot toward Malfoy like a javelin. Malfoy only just got out of the way in time; Harry made a sharp about-face and held the broom steady. A few people below were clapping.**

**"No Crabbe and Goyle up here to save your neck, Malfoy," Harry called.**

**The same thought seemed to have struck Malfoy.**

**"Catch it if you can, then!" he shouted, and he threw the glass ball high into the air and streaked back toward the ground.**

**Harry saw, as though in slow motion, the ball rise up in the air and then start to fall. He leaned forward and pointed his broom handle down — next second he was gathering speed in a steep dive, racing the ball — wind whistled in his ears, mingled with the screams of people watching — he stretched out his hand — a foot from the ground he caught it, just in time to pull his broom straight, and he toppled gently onto the grass with the Remembrall clutched safely in his fist.**

"Wait so he really did make that catch I though wood was exaggerating or something."

**"HARRY POTTER!"**

**His heart sank faster than he'd just dived. Professor McGonagall was running toward them. He got to his feet, trembling.**

**"Never — in all my time at Hogwarts —"**

**Professor McGonagall was almost speechless with shock, and her glasses flashed furiously, "— how dare you — might have broken your neck —"**

**"It wasn't his fault, Professor —"**

**"Be quiet, Miss Patil —"**

**"But Malfoy —"**

**"That's enough, Mr. Weasley. Potter, follow me, now."**

**Harry caught sight of Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle's triumphant faces as he left, walking numbly in Professor McGonagall's wake as she strode toward the castle. He was going to be expelled, he just knew it. He wanted to say something to defend himself, but there seemed to be something wrong with his voice. Professor McGonagall was sweeping along without even looking at him; he had to jog to keep up. Now he'd done it. He hadn't even lasted two weeks. He'd be packing his bags in ten minutes. What would the Dursleys say when he turned up on the doorstep?**

"Something like hurry up boy and put your freakish school things away you got work to do and keep that bloody bird quiet," Dudley said in a perfect imitation of his dad making everyone fall to the floor laughing.

**Up the front steps, up the marble staircase inside and still Professor McGonagall didn't say a word to him. She wrenched open doors and marched along corridors with Harry trotting miserably behind her. Maybe she was taking him to Dumbledore. He thought of Hagrid, expelled but allowed to stay on as gamekeeper. Perhaps he could be Hagrid's assistant. His stomach twisted as he imagined it, watching Ron and the others becoming wizards, while he stumped around the grounds carrying Hagrid's bag.**

**Professor McGonagall stopped outside a classroom. She opened the door and poked her head inside.**

**"Excuse me, Professor Flitwick, could I borrow Wood for a moment?"**

**Wood? thought Harry, bewildered; was Wood a cane she was going to use on him?**

Everyone was silent for a minute than Fred decided to break the silence

"Na they don't use corporal punishment at Hogwarts." Fred said leaning back in his chair.

**But Wood turned out to be a person, a burly fifth-year boy who came out of Flitwick's class looking confused.**

**"Follow me, you two," said Professor McGonagall, and they marched on up the corridor, Wood looking curiously at Harry.**

**"In here."**

**Professor McGonagall pointed them into a classroom that was empty except for Peeves, who was busy writing rude words on the blackboard.**

**"Out, Peeves!" she barked. Peeves threw the chalk into a bin, which clanged loudly, and he swooped out cursing. Professor McGonagall slammed the door behind him and turned to face the two boys.**

**"Potter, this is Oliver Wood. Wood — I've found you a Seeker."**

"A what?" Dudley asked

"A seeker is a position on the Quidditch team." Fred explained.

**"And Harry's one of the best the schools ever seen!" Neville cheered.**

**Wood's expression changed from puzzlement to delight.**

**"Are you serious, Professor?"**

**"Absolutely," said Professor McGonagall crisply. "The boy's a natural. I've never seen anything like it. Was that your first time on a broomstick, Potter?"**

**Harry nodded silently. He didn't have a clue what was going on, but he didn't seem to be being expelled, and some of the feeling started coming back to his legs.**

**"He caught that thing in his hand after a fifty-foot dive," Professor McGonagall told Wood. "Didn't even scratch himself. Charlie Weasley couldn't have done it."**

"Not in his first year and definitely not on a school broom." Fred gloated.

**Wood was now looking as though all his dreams had come true at once.**

"Of course he did." Fred said rolling his eyes but there was a smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

**"Ever seen a game of Quidditch, Potter?" he asked excitedly.**

**"Wood's captain of the Gryffindor team," Professor McGonagall explained.**

**"He's just the build for a Seeker, too," said Wood, now walking around Harry and staring at him. "Light —speedy — we'll have to get him a decent broom, Professor — a Nimbus Two Thousand or a Cleansweep Seven, I'd say."**

**"I shall speak to Professor Dumbledore and see if we can't bend the first-year rule. Heaven knows, we need a better team than last year. Flattened in that last match by Slytherin, I couldn't look Severus Snape in the face for weeks…"**

**Professor McGonagall peered sternly over her glasses at Harry.**

**"I want to hear you're training hard, Potter, or I may change my mind about punishing you."**

**Then she suddenly smiled.**

**"Your father would have been proud," she said. "He was an excellent Quidditch player himself."**

"Wait so let me get this straight? Potter's an athlete, that skinny little runt and athlete?" Gordon asked

"I don't believe it." Piers sneered

"Well believe it because it's true."

**"You're joking."**

**It was dinnertime. Harry had just finished telling Ron what had happened when he'd left the grounds with Professor McGonagall. Ron had a piece of steak and kidney pie halfway to his mouth, but he'd forgotten all about it.**

"It's a miracle!" Fred cried "Ron forgot about food!"

**"Seeker?" he said. "But first years never — you must be the youngest house player in about —"**

**" — a century," said Harry, shoveling pie into his mouth. He felt particularly hungry after the excitement of the afternoon. "Wood told me."**

**Ron was so amazed, so impressed; he just sat and gaped at Harry.**

**"I start training next week," said Harry. "Only don't tell anyone, Wood wants to keep it a secret."**

"Nothing stays a secret at Hogwarts." Neville grinned.

**Fred and George Weasley now came into the hall, spotted Harry, and hurried over.**

**"Well done," said George in a low voice. "Wood told us. We're on the team too — Beaters."**

**"I tell you, we're going to win that Quidditch cup for sure this year," said Fred. "We haven't won since Charlie left, but this year's team is going to be brilliant. You must be good, Harry, Wood was almost skipping when he told us."**

"I saw him and he was skipping." Lee snorted making everyone laugh

**"Anyway, we've got to go, Lee Jordan reckons he's found a new secret passageway out of the school."**

**"Bet it's that one behind the statue of Gregory the Smarmy that we found in our first week. See you."**

"Was it?" Ginny asked

"Yep."

**Fred and George had hardly disappeared when someone far less welcome turned up: Malfoy, flanked by Crabbe and Goyle.**

"It's nice to know forge and I are more welcome than young Mr. Malfoy and his cronies." Fred said in a mock pompous voice making everyone laugh

**"Having a last meal, Potter? When are you getting the train back to the Muggles?"**

**"You're a lot braver now that you're back on the ground and you've got your little friends with you," said Harry coolly.**

Lee laughed. "Nice one Harry."

**There was of course nothing at all little about Crabbe and Goyle, but as the High Table was full of teachers, neither of them could do more than crack their knuckles and scowl.**

**"I'd take you on anytime on my own," said Malfoy. "Tonight, if you want. Wizard's duel. Wands only — no contact. What's the matter? Never heard of a wizard's duel before, I suppose?"**

**"Of course he has," said Ron, wheeling around. "I'm his second, who's yours?"**

Ginny rolled her eyes "Of course Ron would accept for him."

**Malfoy looked at Crabbe and Goyle, sizing them up.**

**"Crabbe," he said. "Midnight all right? We'll meet you in the trophy room; that's always unlocked."**

**When Malfoy had gone, Ron and Harry looked at each other.**

**"What is a wizard's duel?" said Harry. "And what do you mean, you're my second?"**

**"Well, a second's there to take over if you die," said Ron casually, getting started at last on his cold pie. Catching the look on Harry's face, he added quickly, "But people only die in proper duels, you know, with real wizards. The most you and Malfoy'll be able to do is send sparks at each other. Neither of you knows enough magic to do any real damage. I bet he expected you to refuse, anyway."**

"More like he wanted you to accept so he could tip off Filch." Neville glared at the book.

**"And what if I wave my wand and nothing happens?"**

**"Throw it away and punch him on the nose," Ron suggested.**

**"Excuse me."**

**They both looked up. It was Hermione Granger.**

**"Can't a person eat in peace in this place?" said Ron.**

**Hermione ignored him and spoke to Harry.**

"So their usual routine" Ginny joked.

**"I couldn't help overhearing what you and Malfoy were saying —"**

**"Bet you could," Ron muttered.**

**"— and you mustn't go wandering around the school at night, think of the points you'll lose Gryffindor if you're caught, and you're bound to be. It's really very selfish of you."**

"I forgot how bad she used to be." Fred noted.

"Yeah being friends with Harry and Ron really helped loosen her up." Neville smiled thinking about the three of them.

**"And it's really none of your business," said Harry.**

**"Good-bye," said Ron.**

**All the same, it wasn't what you'd call the perfect end to the day, Harry thought, as he lay awake much later listening to Dean and Seamus falling asleep (Neville wasn't back from the hospital wing). Ron had spent all evening giving him advice such as "If he tries to curse you, you'd better dodge it, because I can't remember how to block them." There was a very good chance they were going to get caught by Filch or Mrs. Norris, and Harry felt he was pushing his luck, breaking another school rule today. On the other hand, Malfoy's sneering face kept looming up out of the darkness — this was his big chance to beat Malfoy face-to-face. He couldn't miss it.**

"Of course he couldn't." Ginny rolled her eyes fondly.

**"Half-past eleven," Ron muttered at last, "we'd better go."**

**They pulled on their bathrobes, picked up their wands, and crept across the tower room, down the spiral staircase, and into the Gryffindor common room. A few embers were still glowing in the fireplace, turning all the armchairs into hunched black shadows. They had almost reached the portrait hole when a voice spoke from the chair nearest them, "I can't believe you're going to do this, Harry."**

**A lamp flickered on. It was Hermione Granger, wearing a pink bathrobe and a frown.**

"She's relentless." Piers cried "Doesn't she ever give up?"

"No not really."

**"You!" said Ron furiously. "Go back to bed!"**

**"I almost told your brother," Hermione snapped, "Percy — he's a prefect, he'd put a stop to this."**

**Harry couldn't believe anyone could be so interfering.**

"How on earth did they become friends?" Dudley asked.

"I think the next chapter explains." Ginny said.

**"Come on," he said to Ron. He pushed open the portrait of the Fat Lady and climbed through the hole.**

**Hermione wasn't going to give up that easily. She followed Ron through the portrait hole, hissing at them like an angry goose.**

Everyone laughed at that.

"The sad thing is that's extremely accurate." Neville said through his laugh.

**"Don't you care about Gryffindor, do you only care about yourselves, I don't want Slytherin to win the house cup, and you'll lose all the points I got from Professor McGonagall for knowing about Switching Spells."**

**"Go away."**

**"All right, but I warned you, you just remember what I said when you're on the train home tomorrow, you're so —"**

**But what they were, they didn't find out. Hermione had turned to the portrait of the Fat Lady to get back inside and found herself facing an empty painting. The Fat Lady had gone on a nighttime visit and Hermione was locked out of Gryffindor tower.**

"I hate it when she did that." Fred groaned

**"Now what am I going to do?" she asked shrilly.**

**"That's your problem," said Ron. "We've got to go, we're going to be late."**

**They hadn't even reached the end of the corridor when Hermione caught up with them.**

**"I'm coming with you," she said.**

**"You are not."**

**"D'you think I'm going to stand out here and wait for Filch to catch me? If he finds all three of us I'll tell him the truth, that I was trying to stop you, and you can back me up."**

**"You've got some nerve —" said Ron loudly.**

**"Shut up, both of you!" said Harry sharply. "I heard something."**

**It was a sort of snuffling.**

**"Mrs. Norris?" breathed Ron, squinting through the dark.**

**It wasn't Mrs. Norris. It was Neville. He was curled up on the floor, fast asleep, but jerked suddenly awake as they crept nearer.**

**"Thank goodness you found me! I've been out here for hours, I couldn't remember the new password to get in to bed."**

"Did you forget it a lot?" Dudley asked.

"Yeah I did, it was super annoying too."

**"Keep your voice down, Neville. The password's 'Pig snout' but it won't help you now, the Fat Lady's gone off somewhere."**

**"How's your arm?" said Harry.**

**"Fine," said Neville, showing them. "Madam Pomfrey mended it in about a minute."**

**"Good — well, look, Neville, we've got to be somewhere, we'll see you later —"**

**"Don't leave me!" said Neville, scrambling to his feet, "I don't want to stay here alone, the Bloody Baron's been past twice already."**

"I know it was just my first year that I was scared of him." He said sheepishly before anyone could comment.

**Ron looked at his watch and then glared furiously at Hermione and Neville.**

**"If either of you get us caught, I'll never rest until I've learned that Curse of the Bogies Quirrell told us about, and used it on you."**

"That's my specialty, not Ron's." Ginny grinned.

"Don't we know it." Fred muttered thinking of the times he had gotten he had gotten hit with that hex.

**Hermione opened her mouth, perhaps to tell Ron exactly how to use the Curse of the Bogies, but Harry hissed at her to be quiet and beckoned them all forward.**

**They flitted along corridors striped with bars of moonlight from the high windows. At every turn Harry expected to run into Filch or Mrs. Norris, but they were lucky. They sped up a staircase to the third floor and tiptoed toward the trophy room.**

**Malfoy and Crabbe weren't there yet. The crystal trophy cases glimmered where the moonlight caught them. Cups, shields, plates, and statues winked silver and gold in the darkness. They edged along the walls, keeping their eyes on the doors at either end of the room. Harry took out his wand in case Malfoy leapt in and started at once. The minutes crept by.**

**"He's late, maybe he's chickened out," Ron whispered.**

**Then a noise in the next room made them jump. Harry had only just raised his wand when they heard someone speak — and it wasn't Malfoy.**

**"Sniff around, my sweet, they might be lurking in a corner."**

"He did tip off Filch!" Dudley cried outraged.

"I may not like Potter but don't go running to adult unless it's to piss 'em off," Piers said to received nods in agreement from Malcolm and Gordon.

**It was Filch speaking to Mrs. Norris. Horror-struck, Harry waved madly at the other three to follow him as quickly as possible; they scurried silently toward the door, away from Filch's voice. Neville's robes had barely whipped round the corner when they heard Filch enter the trophy room.**

**"They're in here somewhere," they heard him mutter, "probably hiding."**

**"This way!" Harry mouthed to the others and, petrified, they began to creep down a long gallery full of suits of armor. They could hear Filch getting nearer. Neville suddenly let out a frightened squeak and broke into a run he tripped, grabbed Ron around the waist, and the pair of them toppled right into a suit of armor.**

Everyone groaned at that, even Neville.

"Neville, I'm surprised you didn't get them caught." Fred moaned.

**The clanging and crashing were enough to wake the whole castle.**

**"RUN!" Harry yelled, and the four of them sprinted down the gallery, not looking back to see whether Filch was following — they swung around the doorpost and galloped down one corridor then another, Harry in the lead, without any idea where they were or where they were going — they ripped through a tapestry and found themselves in a hidden passageway, hurtled along it and came out near their Charms classroom, which they knew was miles from the trophy room.**

**"I think we've lost him," Harry panted, leaning against the cold wall and wiping his forehead. Neville was bent double, wheezing and spluttering.**

"I was really out of shape back then." Neville chuckled.

**"I —told — you," Hermione gasped, clutching at the stitch in her chest, "I — told — you."**

**"We've got to get back to Gryffindor tower," said Ron, "quickly as possible."**

**"Malfoy tricked you," Hermione said to Harry. "You realize that, don't you? He was never going to meet you — Filch knew someone was going to be in the trophy room, Malfoy must have tipped him off."**

**Harry thought she was probably right, but he wasn't going to tell her that.**

**"Let's go."**

**It wasn't going to be that simple. They hadn't gone more than a dozen paces when a doorknob rattled and something came shooting out of a classroom in front of them.**

**It was Peeves. He caught sight of them and gave a squeal of delight.**

Fred and Lee groaned "great he might turn them in."

"Might?" Dudley asked.

"Yeah it all depends on his mood and how much he wants to irritate Filch."

**"Shut up, Peeves — please — you'll get us thrown out."**

**Peeves cackled.**

**"Wandering around at midnight, Ickle Firsties? Tut, tut, tut. Naughty, naughty, you'll get caughty."**

**"Not if you don't give us away, Peeves, please."**

**"Should tell Filch, I should," said Peeves in a saintly voice, but his eyes glittered wickedly. "It's for your own good, you know."**

**"Get out of the way," snapped Ron, taking a swipe at Peeves this was a big mistake.**

"A very, very big mistake," Lee muttered.

**"STUDENTS OUT OF BED!" Peeves bellowed, "STUDENTS OUT OF BED DOWN THE CHARMS CORRIDOR!"**

**Ducking under Peeves, they ran for their lives, right to the end of the corridor where they slammed into a door — and it was locked.**

**"This is it!" Ron moaned, as they pushed helplessly at the door, "We're done for! This is the end!"**

**They could hear footsteps, Filch running as fast as he could toward Peeves's shouts.**

**"Oh, move over," Hermione snarled. She grabbed Harry's wand, tapped the lock, and whispered, "Alohomora!"**

"I thought you couldn't use someone else's wand?" Dudley said confused.

"You can but it just won't work as well for you than for the owner," Ginny said.

**The lock clicked and the door swung open — they piled through it, shut it quickly, and pressed their ears against it, listening.**

**"Which way did they go, Peeves?" Filch was saying. "Quick, tell me."**

**"Say 'please.'"**

**"Don't mess with me, Peeves, now where did they go?"**

**"Shan't say nothing if you don't say please," said Peeves in his annoying singsong voice.**

Lee and Fred breathed a sigh of relief "He won't tell Filch."

"How do you know?" Malcolm asked perplexed.

"He used a double negative." Lee answered.

**"All right —please."**

**"NOTHING! Ha haaa! Told you I wouldn't say nothing if you didn't say please! Ha ha! Haaaaaa!" And they heard the sound of Peeves whooshing away and Filch cursing in rage.**

**"He thinks this door is locked," Harry whispered. "I think we'll be okay — get off, Neville!" For Neville had been tugging on the sleeve of Harry's bathrobe for the last minute. "What?"**

Neville went grim as he remembered what had been behind that door.

**Harry turned around — and saw, quite clearly, what. For a moment, he was sure he'd walked into a nightmare — this was too much, on top of everything that had happened so far.**

**They weren't in a room, as he had supposed. They were in a corridor. The forbidden corridor on the third floor. And now they knew why it was forbidden.**

**They were looking straight into the eyes of a monstrous dog, a dog that filled the whole space between ceiling and floor. It had three heads. Three pairs of rolling, mad eyes; three noses, twitching and quivering in their direction; three drooling mouths, saliva hanging in slippery ropes from yellowish fangs.**

"WHAT THE BLOODY HELL IS THAT THING?" Dudley shouted.

"His name is Fluffy," Ginny said.

**It was standing quite still, all six eyes staring at them, and Harry knew that the only reason they weren't already dead was that their sudden appearance had taken it by surprise, but it was quickly getting over that, there was no mistaking what those thunderous growls meant.**

**Harry groped for the doorknob — between Filch and death, he'd take Filch.**

"Smart choice there Harry," Lee grinned.

**They fell backward — Harry slammed the door shut, and they ran, they almost flew, back down the corridor. Filch must have hurried off to look for them somewhere else, because they didn't see him anywhere, but they hardly cared — all they wanted to do was put as much space as possible between them and that monster. They didn't stop running until they reached the portrait of the Fat Lady on the seventh floor.**

**"Where on earth have you all been?" she asked, looking at their bathrobes hanging off their shoulders and their flushed, sweaty faces.**

**"Never mind that — pig snout, pig snout," panted Harry, and the portrait swung forward. They scrambled into the common room and collapsed, trembling, into armchairs.**

**It was a while before any of them said anything. Neville, indeed, looked as if he'd never speak again.**

"That's how I felt for a while."

**"What do they think they're doing, keeping a thing like that locked up in a school?" said Ron finally. "If any dog needs exercise, that one does." Hermione had got both her breath and her bad temper back again. "You don't use your eyes, any of you, do you?" she snapped. "Didn't you see what it was standing on?"**

"Uh not I was staring at his heads."

**"The floor?" Harry suggested. "I wasn't looking at its feet, I was too busy with its heads."**

Everyone laughed at that.

**"No, not the floor. It was standing on a trapdoor. It's obviously guarding something."**

**She stood up, glaring at them.**

**"I hope you're pleased with yourselves. We could all have been killed — or worse, expelled. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to bed."**

"She needs to sort out her priorities." Fred muttered **(A/N: sorry I couldn't resist :P)**

**Ron stared after her, his mouth open.**

**"No, we don't mind," he said. "You'd think we dragged her along, wouldn't you."**

**But Hermione had given Harry something else to think about as he climbed back into bed. The dog was guarding something… What had Hagrid said? Gringotts was the safest place in the world for something you wanted to hide — except perhaps Hogwarts.**

**It looked as though Harry had found out where the grubby little package from vault seven hundred and thirteen was.**

"So there really was a three headed dog at Hogwarts our first year." Lee asked.

"Yeah and it was scary as hell to run into" Neville shuddered.

**Well there's the chapter! Hope you liked it. And as always here's a quote:**

"**Drive it like you stole it!"**


End file.
